


so honey hold my hand

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/F, Fluff and Humor, Girl Direction, Internalized Bi-erasure, Light Angst, No Smut, OT5 Friendship, bc feels better than internalized homophobia tho i guess that kinda fits too, i guess ill create that tag, pretty much also an american au except they play football and not soccer, references to the breakfast club oops, theres some narry too except not really?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 03:51:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8650378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: “Um, Niall,” said Zayn beside her, removing one of her earphones. Her eyes grew wide as the four sets of eyes stared at her, causing the rest of her question to turn out softer  than it had probably intended. “Could I borrow a bit of the yellow very quickly?""Oh, sure.”Louis grabbed the small container before Zayn even moved her hand, quickly removing the lid and dabbing a little paint on her finger.“You need to cheer up a little, buttercup,” said Louis, reaching forward and-And now Liam had yellow paint on her nosetip. She took a deep breath, but the chemical smell did nothing to calm her down.“I’ll… just wait until I can use the paint,” muttered Zayn, leaning back against her chair.    OR A highschool AU where the girls get into a paint fight during art class and befriend during their detentions





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ivegotfireforaheart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivegotfireforaheart/gifts).



> So! This is officially the longest thing I have ever posted AND I wrote this in around a month, so I'm not really sure how this happened. Like, I literally have no idea where all these words came from, but I'm not going to complain? I had so much fun writing this and I hope you like it too!
> 
> This wasn't read through by anyone so all mistakes are mine. Soz about that.
> 
> Obligatory disclaimer: The story and characters are fictional, don't own 1d or its (past) members, don't show it to people who're mentioned here, etc.

Liam frowned as she opened her book bag’s smaller pocket. She took out her phone, her keys, a few matching socks, but no earphones. She sighed, looking up from her corner of the room.

Today, the art classroom was as close as it would ever get to being organized. The center of the room was empty, she realized, instead of the weird sculptures that were somehow considered art or the fruit bowls that had stood there throughout the previous week until they’d started to rot.

The bell rang. The few students that had been littering around the door entered the classroom.

Liam looked at the small pile she created. She started to clean up her mess, even if it wasn’t as bad as it could be when she was using lots of colors in her paintings. It wasn’t even as bad as the ones the other girls in her table made, which then made it impossible to figure out whose belongings were whose. As if called forward by her thoughts, a heavy book bag was thrown to the floor on the other side of her table.

“Why are there socks on the table?”

She looked up to see Louis Tomlinson glaring at her. Her glares always left Liam racking her brain, trying to figure out what in the hell she had done wrong. Well, in this particular moment Liam knew that it was her socks over their table, but in general… Liam had no clue. Louis’ short hair was messed up, sticking up in all types of directions as if she’d fallen asleep during lunch. Her clothing was always bright enough that it left Liam wondering whether those color combinations were even socially acceptable. No one ever said anything to her, but Liam would most certainly not pull off those fashion risks in a million years.

Louis raised her eyebrows, hands on her hips as she refused to sit down. Liam couldn’t help but bite her lip and take a deep breath before speaking.

“Couldn’t find my earphones,” she said, congratulating herself for keeping her voice steady.

“Yeah, that really doesn’t answer the question,” said Louis, sitting down in front of her.

“Oh, well, I take gym class first thing in the morning and sometimes they make us run outside and my socks get wet with morning dew? And then I have geography and it’s always so cold in that classroom, so I always carry at least another pair of socks with me, just in case,” said Liam.

God, she needed to stop rambling on to people who didn’t like her, stop giving them more fuel for their dislike.

She was trying to be a little bit more positive this school year and stop thinking everyone hated her, but she also considered herself to be an honest person and there was no way she could ignore the way Louis rolled her eyes every time Liam opened her mouth to speak.

“Alright, live your life, Mary,” she said, sitting down on her chair, facing Liam.

"It's Liam."

"I know. But that bag's just like Mary Poppins'."

Liam sighed, trying her best to not roll her eyes because _po-si-ti-vi-sm, Liam!_

Harry Styles sat down beside Liam, instantly laughing out loud and covering her mouth with a hand. A few seconds later, her friend Niall sat down beside Louis, as she’d been ordered by the teacher after being unable to stop talking and giggling with Harry throughout the entire class.

Liam promptly lowered her head and cleaned her area as quickly as possible. She took out her pencils and sketching pad when the bell rang once again, sitting up straight as the teacher stood up.

Liam groaned, closing her eyes and laying her head on the table, seeing that the teacher was handing out their graded projects while she did the roll call.

She could feel the soft vibrations of Louis’ nails tapping the wooden table in an unrecognizable rhythm, the way the table was slightly pushed to the side as Harry leaned forward, the way Niall slapped her hand on the table as she tried to stop laughing at something Harry had undoubtedly written in an illegal note. Liam simply took a deep breath and tried to ignore the tight feeling on her chest.

“Malik-”

“I’m here! I’m here!”

Liam opened her eyes, turning her head slightly just to confirm that the girl in question was not in fact beside her. She frowned, looking up.

The teacher looked around in confusion just as Zayn Malik entered the classroom, walking with one hand carrying her book bag and another in her hair, undoing her plait. She stopped in front of the teacher, hand ready to receive her work.

“You’re late. Again,” she added with a frown.

“Sorry, I just keep getting lost. I’m still having trouble adapting to this new school,” said Zayn, her shoulders slouching a little.

“It’s been a month, Zayn. Maybe try a new excuse next time,” she sighed the, handing over the graded work.

Zayn sat down beside her and, despite quickly turning the paper upside down, Liam couldn’t stop herself from catching a glance at the cool-toned painting with a nice little ‘A’ on the clipped grading paper.

Liam took a deep breath, but there was barely any time left to relieve her nerves before her own name was called out.

The little hope she had at the back of her mind was smashed to the ground when she saw the teacher’s small frown at her work.

“Don’t be discouraged,” she said as she handed it over, painting a smile over her lips. “I can’t wait to see your progress throughout the year.”

Right.

She nodded, glancing at her paper as she walked towards her table and being unable to stop the cold feeling of dread from spreading through her body.

She quickly glanced to see that Niall was on her phone, Zayn already had her earphones on and attempting to nap, and Louis and Harry were too busy waiting for their names to be called that they weren’t paying attention to her.

Because, honestly, everyone knew that the teacher always refused to give anything less than a C in her class. Liam’s project probably was one of those pity-grades. And it’d _looked_ good enough for her, even if the lemons looked like oranges and the apples looked like abnormal stop signs because Liam was unable to even draw a nice circle. Not that apples were perfectly circular, but the point was that her still-life project most definitely did not deserve to be graded a C.

She’d do a better job next time, she knew that, but she couldn’t help but feeling so disappointed.

Louis sat down in front of her, a small laugh coming from her lips. She looked at her project and, from Liam’s distorted perspective, it honestly just looked like blotches of paint. Liam would ask what it was, except that would probably be rude and she doesn’t want to give Louis another reason to hate her. She’d probably laugh at the fact that she'd gotten a B without making half of Liam’s effort, which might’ve not been the best either way.

“Honestly, I love this class. Just throw some paint at the canvas paper, say it’s abstract, and you’re done,” muttered Louis with a chuckle, going off to put it in her bag without placing it in a folder or anything.

Liam forced herself to take a deep breath. God forbid that she started crying like she always did when she was frustrated.

She tried focusing on the teacher’s little speech, something about how they were now moving towards animate beings and were going to start with the human body in today’s class.

“Yes, it’s my time to shine!” said Harry in a faux-whisper to Niall, who chuckled.

“Now, don’t get too nervous,” said the teacher, hands up in the air in a way that Liam reckoned was supposed to soothe them. “Today we’ll work with the model so you can get inspiration for your next project, but you don’t have to commit to it right now. We’ll have several more workshops throughout these following weeks to improve your works. Any question?”

Beside Liam, Harry raised her hand.

“About the class or the project,” the teacher added.

Harry slowly lowered her hand.

“I'm assuming the model’s a woman,” said another student at the other side of the room, “Will she be naked?”

The teacher sighed.

“That would’ve been ideal. But the school board has other opinions, as I learned a few years ago. After much of my insistence, though, we’ve compromised to her wearing nude clothing. So please, and I know this is a lot to ask some of you, but please act like mature adults thorughout the class,” she said, giving a pointed glance to their table and the few boys in their class.

To which, of course, Niall responded by turning around in her chair and failing to hide a small cackle behind her hand. Harry wrote something in another small piece of paper, smiling at Louis. Louis rolled her eyes and passed the paper to Niall, a small smile appearing on her lips as Niall laughed at whatever Harry had written.

And, alright, maybe Liam couldn’t help but smile a little either.

Niall’s contagious laughter returned as the model entered the room. She was pale and redheaded and if Liam was artistic at all, she'd say that she looked like one of those angelic models in older paintings. And, alright, Liam knew that she would be wearing nude clothing, but she wasn’t expecting it to only be a nude bralette and tight shorts.

Liam looked away quickly, trying not to focus on the way her chest felt all tight after a few seconds of staring at the model. No one else seemed to be having the same problem at her, the general feeling of discomfort every time she did as much as looking at the model. Liam sighed. Because, damn it, that was kind of necessary in this project.

Thankfully, they were dismissed to go to the utility cupboard to look for charcoals, if they so desired. Liam didn’t even think she knew how to use charcoal properly yet, but she took her chance and tried to escape as quickly as possible.

Zayn nodded awake just as Liam moved back her chair. She turned to Liam as she removed one of her earphones.

“Hey, what do we have to do again?”

Liam stared at her for a second, quickly clearing her throat. “Um, just sketch the model? Nothing fancy, but we can use charcoals if we want.”

“What mod- Oh. Well, okay. That’s… new,” said Zayn, nodding and standing up to follow her.

Which maybe wasn’t the best thing to get rid of her tight chest, seeing how Zayn was now pressed up beside her as she examined different charcoal pencils. Liam hadn’t even figured out that there were different types of charcoal pencils. Niall arrived, pressing herself behind them to reach up to the acrylics in the upper shelf.

“Niall, I don’t think she said we can paint in our sketch,” she said.

“Artistic freedom, Liam,” she smiled widely. And, yeah, she guessed she could see why everyone loved her. “I swear, if I have to do another boring black and white piece like she made us do at the beginning, I might as well just drop the class.”

“…You can’t exactly drop classes? I think?”

Niall shrugged with a smile, grabbing a yellow and a white and an orange and finally a brown. She pressed back against them to put the plastic box back on the shelf, before taking a few brushes at random and leaving the cupboard with another smile.

She glanced at Zayn, who simply shrugged with a small smile before leaving the cupboard without another word.

It wasn’t until someone else entered the cupboard that she remembered why she was here. She grabbed a charcoal pencil that she probably wasn’t going to use and returned to her seat.

She took a deep breath, looking at the girls on the table. Zayn’s earphones were back on as she began to do a few light strokes on her paper. Louis’ eyes were set on the model, her jaw relaxed and mouth just slightly open. Harry glared at two boys a few tables away. Niall laughed.

“Haz, I only enrolled in this class for you,” said Niall, between laughs. “How in the hell am I going to do that body justice, Harry?!”

“Okay, I’m all for nudity and partial nudity, if you can even call this partial nudity,” started Harry, sitting up straight and slamming her hands on the table. Liam glanced at Zayn, who was oblivious to all the commotion around her. When she looked at Harry again, her eyes when on her before moving to glance at Louis. “But I’m not here at all for all these stares the model is receiving as if she’s a piece of meat.”

“Oh, no, I’m- I’m not-” started Liam, but stopped as Harry waved a hand and rolled her eyes.

“Not you, Liam. Those two assholes over there,” she said, glancing at a few tables away. “We don’t know her circumstances! She might really need the money! God, I hope she’s getting well paid for this. The point is, she must be respected because, well, she deserves to be respected! We all do! And it doesn’t look like an easy job? I guess, yeah, you just stand there. Well, if going to college doesn’t work out, I guess I could always model for artists? I think I’d like that, actually. But, at the same time, can you imagine the psychological toll? Everybody’s judging you for the way you look and you can’t control it, but you’re still choosing to subject yourself to-”

“Okay, what are you even talking about?” interrupted Louis, turning around in her seat to narrow her eyes at Harry.

“They’re all treating the model as if a she’s a piece of meat, when she’s not and she deserves a lot better than whatever this is!”

Louis blinked.

“You do understand we’re studying the body, right? Her body?”

“Yeah, because that’s what you’re doing. Right, of course,” smirked Harry.

The two looked at Niall, who only laughed and covered her face with her hands, so they turned to stare at Liam.

“What?” she said, fully aware of her wide eyes and tense posture.

“Where do you stand in this, Liam?”

“Um,” she said, taking a deep breath. Everyone else around the classroom seemed to have settled into their work, but here they were having a small debate about women’s rights and bodies and respect. Not that there was anything wrong with that, of course, but there were probably some other things they could be doing instead. Like start their sketches. “I still can’t believe the school board approved this, honestly.”

Which, of course, caused her to receive two very confused looks and an innocent laugh.

“Um, Niall,” said Zayn beside her, removing one of her earphones. Her eyes grew wide as the four sets of eyes stared at her, causing the rest of her question to turn out softer than it had probably intended. “Could I borrow a bit of the yellow very quickly?”

“Oh, sure.”

Louis grabbed the small container before Zayn even moved her hand, quickly removing the lid and dabbing a little paint on her finger.

“You need to cheer up a little, buttercup,” said Louis, reaching forward and-

And now Liam had yellow paint on her nosetip. She took a deep breath, but the chemical smell did nothing to calm her down.

“I’ll… just wait until I can use the paint,” muttered Zayn, leaning back against her chair.

Niall laughed out, breaking the tension in the air.

“What the hell was that?” she whispered, failing at not to slam her hand on the table. She was getting a few looks from the table beside theirs, but Liam returned her attention to keeping Louis' hands away from her. 

“You seriously need to cheer up,” said Louis, her hands thrown up in the air before quickly grabbing more of the paint. “Who in the hell even cares about what the school board says?”

“I do!” said Liam, leaning back against her chair to try to move away from Louis. “I’m sorry for caring about my education, alright?!”

“Stop moving! I want to paint a happy face on your adorable lil’ cheeks,” laughed Louis as Liam swatted her hands away, which only spread the yellow paint throughout their hands.

Harry placed her hands between them as she tried to stop the small slapfight.

“Louis, first of all, don’t put things on our poor Liam’s body without her consent-” Niall cackled loudly. Honestly, if the ground could hurry up and swallow Liam up, she would not complain. At all. “Second of all, she’s right! She, as a young woman, should care about her education because for centuries women were forbidden to educate themselves and it’s the foundation for her future-”

“Oh my God, are you even listening to yourself?!”

“You can borrow the orange,” chuckled Niall, taking off the lid. “It’s happy but still trying to be angry, just like Haz.”

“Excuse me, Niall-”

But Niall had already reached forward to place two orange dots near the place where Harry’s dimples formed whenever she smiled. Harry simply glared at her friend as Louis cackled.

“I like you, though,” she said, glancing over at Niall.

“Oh, the great Louis Tomlinson approves of me. All my life goals have been met,” said Niall with a innocent smile and a roll of eyes.

“Listen, you-”

A streak of yellow ran down Niall’s nose. Her laughter gave Louis time to paint more areas across her cheeks, until Harry reached for another color and smeared her hand across Louis face.

“I didn’t even do anything to you!”

“I’m defending Niall’s honor! And you’ve said plenty of things to me!”

Liam grabbed the remaining paint pot before anyone else could even think about doing so. She stared at Louis’ yellow pot as it laid untouched while she tried to defend herself from Harry’s attack. She decided to grab it as quickly as possible before Louis could grab it once more because, honestly, this was all so ridiculous.

“Girls, what is going on here?”

The four of them looked up at the teacher, who was closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. If Liam hadn’t been aware of the way the paint was drying down on her nose, she was definitely aware of it now.

“I honestly don’t know what to do with you anymore,” said the teacher, placing her hands on her hips. “You know what? Detention for the five of you for the rest of the week, starting today. I’ll figure out what to do for the next time you make a fuss.”

“Sorry, but the five of us?” asked Zayn, beside her. She removed her earphone as she stared at the four of them blankly and then up to the teacher. “This is genuinely the first time in my life where I can honestly say that I’m completely innocent.”

Liam spared a glance to her sketchbook to see a few quick sketches of the model in different styles and, damn, she was good.

“You might not have any paint on you, but I have no evidence that you weren’t involved-”

“She wasn’t!” interrupted Liam.

“Either way, you could’ve done something to stop them,” shrugged the teacher before taking a deep breath. “So detention for the five of you. You four, go to the bathroom and wash the paint off and give thanks that you didn’t waste a lot of paint. I expect you all to have a good sketch when I make my rounds at the end of the class.”

And with that the teacher left for the table beside them, who had been watching the entire interaction with smiles and laughter.

Louis smiled and left the room without any hesitation. Niall stood up and nudged a pouting Harry to her feet with a “c’mon, love” and a kiss to her unstained forehead. When they’d both left, Liam turned to Zayn, who had returned to her music and sketch with a set jaw and furrowed eyebrows.

“Are you mad?” she asked.

“What is wrong with people in this school?” Zayn huffed out, messing up her hair a little and moving her hand down to remove an earphone. “Did everyone here also miss out the memo that having earphones on is the universal sign of ‘don’t talk to me unless it’s an emergency?’”

Liam bit her lip and looked down to her intertwined hands.

“You’re mad.”

“Of course I’m mad. It’s Monday and I’ve already got assigned detention for the rest of the week,” she added as she raised her hands.

“Maybe it won’t be that bad,” she forced herself to say with a shrug. Because positivism, she reckoned. The more negative her approach was, the more negative the result would be. Or something like that.

Zayn simply rolled her eyes and scoffed. She put on her earphones again and, alright, maybe it was time for Liam to remove the paint in her nose before it dried down permanently.

~~~

“So d’you think this is some Breakfast Club type of thing?”

Liam stopped in her tracks and simply stared to the two girls sitting at the back of the classroom. Of all things she expected detention to be, the Breakfast Club was probably the last thing in her mind.

“Miss Payne, please take a seat already.”

She nodded. She set the bookbag beside the chair she usually took on the middle of the classroom.

Something hit her on the shoulder. Liam turned around to see a ball of scrunched up paper on the floor. Niall and Harry smiled at her.

“So, yes or no to the Breakfast Club?” asked Niall, leaning forward and smiling in a way that Liam couldn’t possibly say no to.

“I don’t know? Don’t think so. Like, first of all, we’re only spending an hour here a day, not a whole day,” she said, turning around properly to talk to them. “Also, I don’t think we’ll ever have such a great soundtrack in our lives?”

“Also, isn’t the Breakfast Club called the Breakfast Club because it’s before school?” asked Harry, leaning back against her chair and spreading out her legs, which... okay wow, they were long. “I think I read it on the wikipedia page."

“No, I don’t think so?” she said, tilting her head a little. “M’pretty sure it’s on a Saturday.”

“No, I mean the real Breakfast Club.”

“Haz, love, it’s a movie. It’s not real,” said Niall, taking a hand to her friend’s wavy hair and making it even messier. Harry shrieked a little, but instead of moving away from her, she leaned close enough for Niall to kiss her cheek. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

Liam was thankfully saved from any following awkward moments by Louis entering the classroom.

“’Sup, Simon?”

“Please sit.”

Louis sighed, sitting in the chair closest to the door.

“So, Tomlinson, yes or no to the Breakfast Club?” asked out Niall.

Louis frowned as she turned towards them, resting her hands over her knees.

“Yes to it being a good movie, though I’ll admit some parts could use a little more drama and excitement. No to this detention being anything like it.”

“Same, though it really does make up for it with its great soundtrack,” said Liam.

“Yeah, but that’s not really part of the movie, is it? It’s just additional,” she shrugged.

“Additional? Louis, it’s a central part of the movie!”

“It’s not a musical, Liam. It’s not Grease. It’s not the central part of the movie.”

“Okay, but-”

“Girls,” interrupted Mr. Cowell, checking a sheet of paper. “We’re one short, but let’s just start, alright? I’d rather leave as quickly as possible once our hour here is done and I’m sure you can all relate. Horan and Styles, could you please have at least two empty chairs between the two of you?”

Liam couldn’t help but roll her eyes and smile at the carried whispers of “miss you” and “I told you detention was going to be horrible” behind her.

“I honestly don’t care what you do as long as you don’t speak, don’t listen to music, and don’t use your phones. So let’s start, yeah?”

Liam looked around, but only saw Louis setting down her head on the table and closing her eyes. She herself decided to do her chemistry homework to distract herself from the slowly-turning clock. It would be better to do it now instead of later in the night when she would be even more tired. And, yeah, she hated her chemistry homework and class and teacher and even the concept of chemistry, but maybe using different colored pencils in her calculations would make her feel better and more productive.

However, it only took one look at her first exercise and the overpowering smell of nail varnish someone had opened behind her to realize that this hour was definitely not going to pass quickly.

_C’mon, Liam. Positivism._

“I still think I’m right about this,” muttered Niall behind her.

“Well, I still think I’m right about them being in detention before school, Niall, but apparently some people don’t care about whether you’re right or wrong.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t care. I said it’s all fictional!”

“But I said there’s a real Breakfast Club apart from the fictional one!”

“Girls-” started Mr. Cowell, but stopped as the door opened and Zayn stepped into the room.

“M’sorry I’m late. I got lost,” said Zayn, shoving her earphones into her bookbag.

“Miss Malik, I thought we’d already talked about your tardiness and excuses in class?”

Zayn sighed, muttering another apology. She sat and slid down a chair near the windows, her feet moving to rest over the chair in front of hers.

In all honesty, Liam didn’t know how this girl was alone every time she saw her. Like, if Liam was a pretty girl who everyone looked up to in this school, she’d most probably want Zayn to be her friend. So by that theory, Zayn should really have a lot of friends, but she was always alone whenever she saw her.

Alright, maybe she didn’t need to be pretty or popular to want to be Zayn’s friends, but the few times she'd even considered talking to her, she'd been met with an intense stare. So maybe those people were just as intimidated by her like she was.

“Oh my God, this is so like the Breakfast Club.”

“Horan. No talking.”

Right.

She needed to focus on her chemistry homework. She could do that.

Many minutes later, Liam didn’t know how she found herself erasing a whole page worth of calculations when she was sure she’d followed all the instructions perfectly but she was still not getting the results the back of the book told her.

So, okay, maybe detention really was as horrible as everyone said it was. But she was not going to have a breakdown in detention because of one chemistry exercise.

She looked around to see Louis by the door, her body still enough that there was no doubt that she was asleep. If Liam had had to bet on someone falling asleep during detention, it would’ve probably been Zayn. But Zayn stared out the windows at the other side of the classroom, shaking one of her legs still propped against the chair in front of hers. She looked up to the clock by the wall and smiled.

“Mr. Cowell, time’s up.”

He remained silent for a second as he continued to stare at his computer, finally giving out a sigh and closing it.

“Alright, girls, pick up your things and let’s go. Malik, you’ll be the last to leave since you were late.”

Zayn sighed, taking out her earphones from her bag but leaving them over the table as she turned around to watched them all. Liam stopped staring and started packing away her stuff, which now that she really looked at it, was a lot. Did she really need so many pencils to do the five exercises in the homework? Her answer was yes, but perhaps that wasn’t the correct one after all.

Niall stopped beside her and picked up her notebook. She stared at the remaints of the exercise and switched her attention to the book.

“Liam, you do realize you had the right answer and then erased it, right?”

“What?” she said, flipping to the back of the book for the answer. And, oh, she’d accidentally checked the answers in the wrong section. She groaned and took her hands to her face, taking a laugh out of Niall that seemed the farthest thing from being mean.

“S’okay, love, it happens to Harry all the time,” smiled Niall, returning her notebook.

“What happens to me all the time?” asked Harry, appearing beside her best friend. She took her hand to her hair, immediately taking it out and sighing. “Damn it, I thought my nails were already dry. But, yeah, what always happens to me?”

“You always check the answers in the wrong sections of the answers.”

“Oh,” said Harry, eyes growing wide. “Yeah, seeing so many numbers all close together really confuses me sometimes. But, you know, shit happens. You move on.”

“See you tomorrow,” smiled Niall.

Harry smiled back at her too before leaving to gently shake Louis awake, who immediately jerked awake.

“Liam, please, hurry up,” said Zayn. Her eyes were wide as she looked between Liam and the remaining stuff over her desk. “I want to go home. Like, as soon as possible.”

Liam looked down and thanked the stars that she simply had to put everything in her bag and go. So she did so, relieved when she looked up and saw that Mr. Cowell and Zayn looked progressively less annoyed when she stood up.

She walked out of the classroom as quickly as possible, stopping a few steps in front of the door to take out her cellphone from her bag.

When she looked up after answering a few of her mother’s texts - because, okay, maybe her mother had been right when she’d said detention wasn’t always as bad as people said and, yes, she could safely walk home without waiting another hour for her mother to pick her up - she saw Zayn looking around the hallway with wide eyes.

Liam didn’t see what was odd with the hallway, it was only the two of them now that Mr. Cowell had walked away, but then her eyes met Zayn’s and she decided that she would not be the first one to look away.

Zayn sighed, breaking away the stare. She looked up and took one hand up to her hair as she examined Liam once more.

“Right,” she said, crossing her arms a little. “I know I don’t deserve this because I’ve been rude to you today, but if you’re not going to leave the school now, can you please tell me how to get out?”

Liam blinked because, honestly, that was it?

“Um, yeah, I’m leaving right now, so let’s just walk together, alright?”

Zayn exhaled from the relief, walking towards her.

“Thanks,” she smiled. “It’s seriously not an excuse when I say that I’m always getting lost. Like, I’ve been in this town for two months now and I still don’t know how to get home from here without a GPS.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess our streets don’t make a lot of sense if you’re not used to them,” said Liam with a shrug. She placed her phone in her pocket. “And don’t get me started with the numeric system here in this school. It seriously doesn’t make sense, but you’ll get used to it.”

“I know! And all the teachers expect me to get it right in a month!” exclaimed Zayn, throwing her hands in the air and laughing a little.

Liam smiled, scrunching up her nose a little. “To be fair, Zayn, pretty much every freshman here learns their way after two weeks. I think you’re just an exception.”

“Wow, okay, I see how it is,” said Zayn, sticking out her tongue a little and scrunching up her nose in a way that was probably meant to mock Liam’s previous expression.

“No, but that’s okay, though! I’m sure you’ll get it eventually!”

“Sure, eventually,” Zayn laughed. Liam couldn’t help but notice how nice it was when she smiled like that, tongue sticking out from her teeth just slightly and then biting her bottom lip. Liam looked away, deciding to think about anything else, when Zayn stepped beside her. “Right, well, my mom’s gonna flip if she has to wait even more for me, though I guess… Anyway, shall we go then?”

“Sure, s’just…” said Liam, smiling as Zayn started walking. “This way’s faster.”

“Agh, what would I do without you?” sighed Zayn, catching up with her. “I was already regretting being rude to you today, but now I’m really regretting it with the way you’re being so nice to me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” she shrugged as they both went down the stairs. “Everyone has those days, right? Just try not to be rude again tomorrow, I guess.”

Zayn kept quiet for a moment, before asking “Are you always this, um, bright?”

Liam chuckled, trying not to focus in the way her cheeks burned up in the obvious way they did.

“Bright?” she repeated.

“Yeah, like, motivated and happy? Ugh, I know the word, I just can’t remember it right now.”

“Well,” said Liam, turning around and seeing the main entrance to the school in the distance. “I’m trying to be more positive this school year? Maybe that’s what you mean. And so far I’ve found that, you know, positivism is actually quite necessary if you want to do well.”

“Oh. Liam, babe,” said Zayn. Liam held the door opened for her as Zayn gave her a soft smile. Liam focused on closing the door behind her as perfectly as possible. “D’you mean optimism? ‘Cause, coincidentally, I was looking for the word optimistic just now. Positivism is something entirely different, I’m sure.”

“Oh.” She tried not to focus on her burning cheeks once more or the way Zayn’s laugh sounded, and definitely not the way Zayn’s hand went out to softly hold her wrist.

“Liam, I swear I’m not laughing at you. I’m sorry,” she said, and when Liam looked up, she could see her eyes were honest. “It’s just, you’re cute, yeah?”

“I’m cute?”

“Yeah,” smiled Zayn. “And in the good way. Not in the dismissive way, okay? So, sorry if it came off like that.”

“I- well, thanks, I guess?” she said. It probably should’ve not ended up as a question, but she’d been too busy trying to stop her smile and her burning cheeks. She knew she’d completely failed from the way Zayn was smiling at her.

“Anyway,” said Zayn, pointing out to the cars behind her. “My family’s waiting for me, so I’ll see you tomorrow in art class? You want a lift home? We can fit you in.”

“No, it’s alright, I’ll walk. I live close. But, yeah, see you tomorrow,” said Liam, repeating Zayn’s peace sign at her and turning around in the opposite direction.

It usually took Liam ten minutes to walk home, maybe fifteen if she was distracted or tired. When she got home and saw the clock on the kitchen, she guessed she must’ve done it a bit faster than day today.

She sighed, leaving a granola bar unopened and going up the stairs to look for her tennis shoes. She needed to go out for a run. She knew from experience that it would help her to forget all her thoughts for the day, even if it was only until the next morning.

~~~

Liam smiled at the lunch lady as she left the line. She looked around the cafeteria tables in front of her. Andy and Maz had a different lunch schedule this year and she’d been left alone to sit wherever she could. Good news was that she could always find a seat, even if she didn’t know the rest of the people in the table and they showed no interest in talking with her. Bad news was that it could sometimes get lonely, even if she often listened to her music while she ate.

Well, she would listen to her music if she stopped forgetting her earphones. Most days she ended up scrolling down her apps or even texting her friends while they was in class.

She set down her tray, her head turning as a loud psst traveled the cafeteria hall. She saw Harry and Niall sitting at a circular table in the corner of the cafeteria, waving their hands in the air as they looked in her direction. Zayn sat beside them, a hand covering her face.

Liam looked behind her, but it seemed that no one but else had been paying attention to them. She looked again, seeing the pair nodding and waving more furiously. She sighed and picked up her tray, walking in their direction.

In the case that it’d been a mistake and they’d been waving for someone else, she could always sit down beside Zayn and talk to her if she wasn’t too distracted with her music.

“Liam!”

“Yay, she’s sitting with us!” exclaimed Harry, making to stand up but deciding otherwise as her chair almost fell down as she did so. “We’re not taking you away from anyone else, right?”

Liam shook her head, placing her tray beside hers and sitting down. Harry and Niall smiled, apparently unaware of the way Zayn’s wide eyes looked at them as if they were an incredible danger to society. Zayn quickly looked at her, and Liam instantly understood.

She was the savior of being the third-wheeler in the table.

Ah.

“No, not really?” she said, trying to ignore the way her voice tilted up like a question despite it being a fact. “I’m a bit surprised you don’t, though.”

“Nah, we have you and little Zaynie over here,” smiled Niall, her attention now on her cellphone.

“S’just Zayn,” mumbled Zayn, looking up from her phone. She gave her a little glare that went unperceived by Niall.

“Sure, Zaynie.”

Zayn sighed, making eye contact with Liam and rolling her eyes with a small smile on her lips.

“Plus,” said Harry, interrupting Liam’s smile and capturing her attention. “We were sitting with Harrison and Watson since the start of classes but we found out a week ago that they’d just been trying to get in our pants, so it’s just been the two of us since then. We don't want to sit with people who don't respect us and you are all great.”

“Can those two even respect us as individual women, though?” asked Niall. Or, at least, that’s what Liam understood, as Niall had proceeded to start eating her sandwich in the middle of speaking. “They can’t even respect that I’m- Is that Louis?”

Harry turned around in her chair, lifting herself a little as she raised and waved her arms.

“Oh, it is! Louis! Psst, Louis! Niall, help me convince her to sit with us.”

Niall sighed, a smile on her lips as she continued to tap away on her phone. 

“Hey, Tomlinson! C’mere for a second!”

“Nice one,” smirked Harry. “Real convincing.”

Liam looked behind her to see Louis frowning as she walked by a table a few feet away. She turned back, figuring she should return her attention to the food she’d bought and not give Louis another reason to hate her.

“This is so embarrassing,” mumbled Zayn, once again covering her face with a hand.

Liam stiffled a laugh behind her hand. “I’ve known them since we were kids. They’re like that, yeah.”

“Oh my God,” sighed Zayn, smiling a little at her.

In retrospect, Liam wasn’t sure what she would’ve said, but next thing she knew Harry and Niall were whispering furiously between them. Liam only heard a rapid “is that a dare?” before Harry stood up, arms wide.

“Louis Tomlinson, I love you! You’re so funny, I can’t help it! It’s not me, it’s you!”

“Shit, Harry-”

“You have an amazingly beautiful laugh and a great-”

A tray slammed beside Liam. Louis wedged herself between them, glaring down at a giggling Harry.

“Harry Styles,” said Louis, her voice sharp.

Liam slid to the remaining chair between her own and Zayn’s, just in case. She gave Zayn a look, because she could feel everyone’s stare on their table and, yeah, this was definitely embarrassing. Zayn nodded.

“Have you ever been told that you’re weird, embarrassing, and should definitely be locked up in an asylum for your own sanity and ours too?”

“Well, I have an older sister, so… Yeah, multiple times, in fact,” she said as seriously as possible under the circumstances, following it with a smile. “Sit down with us.”

“I’d rather not. I’ll sit with Stan instead.”

“Stanley?” said Harry, looking behind Louis. “Yeah, I’d say he’s otherwise entertained. So sit down with us.”

“He’s not- Oh,” she said, looking at where her best friend was definitely flirting with another girl from Liam’s history class.

Louis sighed, slowly sitting down between Harry and Liam. Liam looked around the table. Zayn’s expression could only be described as what the fuck? She imagined her face was somewhat similar to hers, with an added this is so embarrassing on top of it all. Louis glared at them all as if they’d been part of the romantic attack towards her. Harry smiled, her giggles slowing down and becoming rarer. And Niall- Niall laughed out loud, and soon the five of them were all laughing together.

Soon after that, however, Zayn returned her attention to her music and Niall to her cellphone, smiling away as she texted. Liam looked to her side, where Louis ate her food as Harry talked beside her.

Maybe she could help her out, since she knew from experience that Harry could talk for hours without reaching her point, if anyone let her.

“Hey, Haz, d’you know what you’re doing for your art project this month?” asked Liam, receiving a thankful stare from Louis and a smile from Harry as she sat up straighter in her chair.

“I guess? I mean, I’m doing a full-on nude-”

“That’s kind of the point,” interrupted Louis.

“Be nice to me,” said Harry, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, I was thinking of doing a warm set of colors? Because, ideally, when you like a person and you like their body, it should feel warm, I guess? I really don’t know if I’m explaining myself properly…”

“No, I get what you’re saying,” nodded Liam.

Harry smiled, leaning towards her.

“Oh, well, thanks. Nudes are kind of my thing, so I’m actually quite excited about this. Nudes and fruit bowls, actually,” she added. “What about you? D’you know already?”

Liam sighed, picking up her fork and running it through her mashed potatoes. “Not really? It’s just such a broad subject, right? Like, we have to take the inspiration from the model, but other than that, she’s giving us complete artistic freedom and I’m not sure what to do with it.”

“Ah, I see,” nodded Harry. “Well, maybe just don’t think about it too much, yeah? Let your creative spirits roam free and then just, like, put it all in the canvas paper. Just don’t trap them all, because you want to have some left over for the rest of term. Release your nude creative spirits, if you will.”

She guessed it was easy for someone like Harry to say that Liam shouldn’t think too much. Ever since she’d known her, Harry could definitely be described like a chill person. This was not to say that she wouldn’t get excited and run around laughing, but she always seemed to accept whatever mishap happened without any second thought. She was so unlike Liam in that sense.

It wasn’t as if she could just stop thinking, block out all her thoughts for a simple project that should not be that hard. It was just a naked body. She had to draw a naked woman and she saw one every day in her mirror. It should not be that hard to figure out what to draw and paint for her project.

However, Louis had looked up from her food tray, and was now taking a deep breath before turning to look at Harry.

“Okay, honest question,” she said, shaking her head. “Do you even know what comes out of your mouth? Do you know what all those words mean all together, or are you just hoping that it’ll make sense in the end? Do those words even make sense to you?”

Harry tilted her head, frowning a little.

“I mean... I don’t really think before I speak and I know I have to work on that, so save your breath,” replied Harry. She propped her head over her hand, leaning towards the table. “I do know what I’m saying, though, at the end of the day. Like, when I look at the big picture of what I've said, I understand that. But it’s, like, do any of us really know what we’re saying? Because, if you break down our language and the way we speak, we’re really just making lots and lots of weird noises and hoping that the other person understands those weird noises. So, it’s all made up, yeah? If you think of it like that, nothing makes sense. Language as a concrete thing is not real... Oh my God, it's not real.”

And, yeah, none of that made sense to Liam but she nodded anyway when Harry looked at her, as if for approval.

“Honestly, Lou,” said Niall, looking up from her phone. “You just accept it from a certain point and learn to speak and love the Harry-speak. She only said that Liam should maybe not think about it so much and just go with whatever she feels she should paint.”

Louis hummed, looking at Niall as she leaned back on her chair.

“What are you going to do then, Niall?”

Niall shrugged. “I’m honestly not good at drawing? Like, at all. So I think I’ll do a bit of pointillism even though she hasn’t introduced the technique yet? Or maybe paint her body like a set of waves and curves, but without it being to abstract? I don’t know yet.”

Zayn looked up from beside her, looking at Niall carefully. “That’s actually quite a good idea.”

Niall shrugged again. “I’m a lot better at painting than at drawing.”

“If it makes you feel better,” smiled Liam. “I’m horrible at drawing too, but I know for sure that your still-life painting was a lot better than mine.”

“You did cranberries or some sort of red berries, right?” asked Zayn, frowning a little. “They weren’t that bad.”

Liam took a deep breath, nodding. “They were supposed to be apples, but thanks, I guess.”

Harry cackled, immediately covering her mouth with a hand and looking at Liam apologetically. Except she was laughing herself, quickly being followed by the others.

“Oh my God, I’m sorry,” laughed Zayn.

“Nah, they didn’t look like apples at all.”

“Just do what I do, gals,” said Louis, raising her hands and nodding. “Just do what the great Louis does. Abstract. Everything is abstract. She can’t tell you you’re doing it wrong, because then you can just say that she’s not seeing the full picture.”

“You do know you can’t do that for this project, right?” asked Zayn, removing her remaining earphone. “She’ll probably accept something like Niall’s, as long as she doesn’t make it too abstract. But she explicitely told us not to do any abstract works this time.”

“What? No, she didn’t,” said Louis, narrowing her eyes at Zayn. “How would you even know that, anyway? You’re always asleep.”

“I mean, I’m not always asleep? And half of the time I’m not genuinely asleep, I’m just resting my eyes,” shrugged Zayn, taking one of her french fries. “If you’d had listened properly when she was explaining the instructions, at least, you would’ve heard her say so. If you don’t believe me, just ask her.”

Louis groaned, taking her hands to her short hair.

“But c’mon, it’s art class. It’s an elective. It shouldn’t be that hard of a class, so why are we doing so much stuff?”

“I know, right?” said Harry, nodding. “It’s almost as if they’re paying a certified person to teach us about art and, therefore, she has to do exactly that if she wants to keep her job.”

Louis sighed. “Take your cheek somewhere else, Harriet.”

“Should I take the rest of my body somewhere else too?”

Niall looked up from her phone, taking a deep breath as everyine else around the table groaned. “Harry, love, don’t embarrass yourself in front of your new friends.”

“It was a good joke, Niall!” she said, slinking down her chair and pouting a little.

“It really wasn’t,” said Niall, returning her attention to her phone. “You’re lucky I love you, though. If not, you would’ve been officially thrown out of this table.”

“Oh, lucky me,” Harry sighed, dramatically throwing a hand over her face. She pushed herself from the table and sat up straighter in her chair, looking at Zayn.

“But yeah, Louis,” said Zayn, crossing her arms. “Plus, it’s almost as if some people look forward to that class because it’s possible it’s the only one they’ll actively use in the future.”

“You’re going to be an artist, then?” asked Liam.

Zayn shrugged. “Don’t know yet, just that it’s going to be something with art.”

Liam nodded, smiling a little as she looked at Zayn closely. “Yeah, I can see that.”

Louis scoffed beside her. “What are you doing in your project, then?”

Zayn sighed, propping her head on her hand as she leaned forwards.

“I’m not exactly sure yet, because I already did a normal, traditional nude paintings in a few of my last schools? We didn't have a model, though. But we’re learning about body heat and all that in my biology class, so I was thinking of doing something like that? I need to figure out how to do that properly, though.”

Niall looked up. “That actually sounds really cool.”

Zayn smiled, looking down at the table with a small blush on her cheeks. “It’ll probably won’t turn out as great as it sounds, but hopefully it’ll all work out, you know.”

“Yeah, it does sound cool but I think it’s rather unfair that you’re taking this class and you already know everything in it,” shrugged Louis.

“Well, it’s not that bad? I like art.”

“No, I didn’t mean unfair for you,” she said, tilting her head as she narrowed her eyes at Zayn. “I meant unfair for us. I mean, you know the techniques, you’re good at them, of course you’re going to be at the top of the class. That leads you to be the class favorite and look where that leads us. A week in detention, that’s where it leads us.”

“I see your point,” said Zayn, nodding. “But I did in fact get thrown into detention with the four of you. Which, thank you for that, my folks at home are really loving it. But, back to the point, you’re just annoyed because you gotta work a lot for your grade now that you can’t do abstract. Meanwhile, I’m not struggling as much as you because I know what I’m doing and I’m better at it than you, right?”

If it had been Liam speaking, Louis would’ve probably rolled her eyes at her and proceeded to throw some snarky remark. But, for some reason that she had yet to understand, Louis laughed and threw her head back. She raised her hand, gesturing Zayn to give her a high five.

Zayn smiled, frowning a little in confusion and gently slapping Louis’ hand.

And, wow, okay. Zayn was so cute. She wondered if she had a boyfriend back at her old school. Maybe that was why there were no guys behind Zayn. Not that she was paying attention to all that, but the boys were usually quite obvious in following around any new cute girls until she dated one of them. Liam couldn’t exactly understand why none of that was happening to Zayn, so that was probably it. That weird sort of male respect for other males, but not for girls who didn’t want to date any of them.

“I like you. You’re cool, not like these three.”

Liam rolled her eyes, her incoming comment being cut off short by the bell ringing and the immediate commotion that it caused around them. She started to stand up and pick up her backpack along with the other girls, except Zayn, who remained seated as she looked at her phone.

“You’re not coming to art class?” asked Harry.

“Yeah, just give me a sec, I gotta hide my earphones for when I walk by Mr. Cowell’s hall because he always takes them away from me,” she said, focusing on placing her backpack over the table. “But you guys can go on. We’re all going to see each other there, anyway.”

Niall and Harry shrugged, Louis commenting something about how she’d expected something a little more exciting to be the reason why Zayn was always late, before the three of them walked away to put their trays away. Zayn raised her eyebrows at Liam, who stood there biting her lip.

“You know,” she said. “If you come with us, you won’t get lost and be late for class. C’mon, just shove them in your bag and let’s go.”

“But I-”

“No excuses,” she smiled. “C’mon. We’re all going to the same place, so we might as well just go together.”

Zayn looked to her side, to the cafeteria’s exit where the other girls where walking towards, and sighed.

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” she said. She looked at Zayn, the way she bit her lower lip. She took a deep breath, solely because she understood how it felt to not be sure whether someone was being polite or not and, well… She understood. “I honestly have never been sure with Louis, but Niall and Harry are genuinely nice. Like, it’s a well-known fact here in this town, that’s how nice they are.”

“Fine,” smiled Zayn. “If it’s the price I have to pay for being born with a horrible sense of direction, then alright.”

~~~

Despite their friendliness and banter throughout lunchtime, art class went as it normally did when it was a technical class. Liam took notes, Louis looked like she’d rather be anywhere but in her seat, Niall and Harry looked at each other and smiled for every little detail that happened, and Zayn slept.

The clock moved slowly throughout the rest of the day, which was how Liam knew that detention would be literal hell if Mr. Cowell was monitoring once again.

Thankfully, he wasn’t.

Unfortunately, it was Mr. Higgins who stepped into the classroom five minutes late and stared at the five of them.

“Okay, this isn’t my usual batch and I’m honestly surprised to see you five here, but I’ll probably save myself a few grey hairs if I don’t ask what stupidity you all did in order to end up here,” he said, nodding to himself and looking at the sheet of paper in his hands. “Right, we’re going to ignore these instructions. No one has cleaned the library or the gym since the last time I monitored detention, so we’re going to do today. So, let’s- Yes, Harry?”

Liam turned around to see Harry lowering her hand. “Right, are we going to use any harsh chemicals to clean? ‘Cause I’m asthmatic and can’t really be around that kind of stuff.”

Mr. Higgins looked up to the ceiling and took a deep breath.

“Are you unable to breathe up dust?”

“No?”

“Then you’ll be working in the library,” he said, marking it down in the piece of paper. “I think you’ll actually love transcribing those old documents, so it won’t really be detention, but if anyone asks it was the most horrible experience in your entire life, alright?”

“That sounds excruciating. Got it,” smiled Harry.

“I’m asthmatic too,” quickly said Louis, raising her hand.

“Me too,” added Horan.

Mr. Higgins stared at Louis, sighing before marking something in his paper. “I mean, it’s not like I have any evidence of the contrary, Tomlinson. It’s not like you’re one of the best players on the girls' football team.”

“I’m not,” smiled Louis.

“Good. You’ll work with Harry on that, then. Niall, I can’t let you and Harry be together because that would be counterproductive. I’m sorry, but I don’t make the rules here.”

“Sure, you do, Paul,” she smiled. “C’mon.”

“You’re going to be in the library, putting the books back in place,” he said, narrowing his eyes in their direction before looking at Liam and Zayn, who was sleeping by the windows. “Liam, wake Malik up. You’re both going to be in the gym. I’m trusting you to get there while I take these three to the library, alright?”

“Aw, Mr. Higgins,” cried out Harry. “Do you not trust us?”

“No. Now, c’mon, let’s go.”

Liam stood up as the others left the room, walking to Zayn’s chair. She’d fallen asleep with an arm over her head, as if to block all the incoming sunlight, so Liam decided it’d be best to shake her arm.

Zayn removed the arm and looked up, frowning and staring at Liam for a few seconds.

“Zayn, you need to wake up,” said Liam, crossing her arms and leaning her side. “C’mon, let’s go.”

“Is detention over?” she asked, blinking in her direction.

“No, Mr. Higgins is in charge today, so he’s making us clean the gym.”

Zayn sat up.

“What? Why?”

“Budget cuts, I guess?” shrugged Liam.

Zayn frown became deeper, huffing out as she stood up. “Of all the schools I’ve been, this is definitely the weirdest.”

“Have you been in many schools, then?” asked Liam, placing her hands in her pockets as she closed the classroom door behind them.

“Yeah,” sighed Zayn, following her down the hall. “Long story short, people can be full of shit. But, yeah, that’s why I already know many of the things they’re giving in art class, for example. I think I’ve reached the point where they see the amount of transcriptions from all the schools I’ve been and they just give up and put me whichever classes I want.”

Liam nodded, opening the door to the gym. She looked around to the basketball court in front of them, seeing how there was no one around.

“Did Mr. Higgins tell us what we have to do?” asked Zayn, sitting down on one of the nearby benches.

“No? I’m pretty sure he didn’t.”

“Good, then just sit with me here,” she smiled, patting the spot beside her. Liam bit her lip, frowning towards the door. “C’mon, just sit down.”

Liam sighed, sitting down beside her. “Alright. It’s Mr. Higgins after all. He’s pretty chill, so it’s not like he’s going to say something.”

“See? Even better,” said Zayn, leaning back against the wall. “The whole point of detention is to make you waste your time, since you’ve wasted the teacher’s. It really doesn’t have any other ulterior motive.”

Liam nodded.

Zayn looked at her, breaking out a small smile. She took out her earphones from her bookbag, tapping away in her phone before offering one earbud to Liam.

“What’s this song?” she asked as she put it on.

“Rihanna,” she smiled. “Push Up On Me. ‘Cause, I don’t know about you, but her Good Girls Gone Bad is her best CD. Like, hands down, no argument about it. I was in the mood to play it this week and I haven’t been able to stop listening it.”

Liam tilted her head, smiling as the song reached its chorus. “I’d only heard her singles before, but this one’s so amazing?”

“I know, right?” said Zayn, standing up straighter and giving her that smile once more, the one where her tongue stuck out from between her teeth. Liam looked away. “Like, she’s such a hot babe. If I’m ever half as cool as she is, I’ll consider my life complete.”

Liam laughed, humming a little as she leaned against the wall. “I’m a Beyonce girl, personally. But that seems like a good life goal, I think.”

“Unachievable life goals, by Zayn Malik,” she started, giving her that smile again. “Be half as cool as Rihanna.”

“Nah, you could reach that, I think. You’re already pretty cool,” shrugged Liam.

Her smile widened. Zayn looked down to her hands, fiddling with the earphone wire. “Nah, it’s just a fac-”

“Am I going to need to separate you two just like I needed to do with the other girls?” Liam looked up to see Mr. Higgins stopping in front of them, crossing his arms. “I trusted you to not be laying around when I got here to check up on you, girls.”

“Um, sir,” said Liam, clearing her throat. “You didn’t exactly tell us what we needed to do.”

Mr. Higgins grimmaced, nodding slowly. “I knew I was forgetting something. Sorry about that. But, c’mon, let’s go.”

And that’s how Liam found herself mopping the large basketball court’s floor, away from Zayn who had been ordered to clean and organize sport equipment. So maybe she didn’t get stuck with the worst job of the lot after all, she tried to tell herself.

A statement which started to become greatly questioned when she saw two familiar faces walk into the gym, walking towards the locker rooms which… were just past her. Right. Liam looked at the two girls walking towards her, too engulfed in their conversation to notice her. Liam looked at how she’d just finished mopping this row, so maybe it was time for a break.

She propped the mop against the wall and headed towards the equipment room, where Zayn looked up as soon as she entered.

And, yeah, she definely got the best job out of the two of them. The walls were lined with shelves full of basketballs and volleyballs. The floor had too many soccer balls and equipment thrown around and it didn’t take much observations skills to know that Zayn was completely out of her element in this room.

“Is it time already? Mr. Higgins took my phone away so I wouldn't play music,” she added as an explanation.

“No,” said Liam, closing the door behind her, just in case. “Just saw some people I’m not exactly in friendly terms with. I’m not exactly in the mood to deal with them right now, although maybe it’s just me harboring old feelings and they’ve forgotten all about it this year, though I wanna be safe and- I’m rambling, aren’t I?”

“Yeah. S’alright, though.” Zayn shrugged, walking towards her and staring at her. “Can I open the door?”

“Um, I’d rather not? Let’s just pretend that we’re secret spies and no one can know where here,” said Liam, faking a smile and blocking the doorknob with her body to stop Zayn from grabbing it.

“C’mon, I’d rather not die of disinfectant fumes,” said Zayn, looking at her all over. “If those people come in, I’ll deal with them. Punch them or shove my foot up their ass.”

“Is that why you’ve been in detention in your other schools?”

“Yeah.”

“Then that literally does not make things better, seeing as we’re in detention already. They were going into the locker rooms and I know for a fact that the cheer squad doesn’t have practice after class today, so they’ll probably just pick up their things and go.”

Zayn stared at her and sighed, taking a hand to her hair and messing it up a little.

“Fine, but if we die, it’s on you.”

“I can help you with cleaning all these stuff in the meantime, if you want.”

Zayn raised her hands, eyes wide. “If you do that, you’ll become my favorite person in the world right now.”

Liam giggled, pushing herself from the door. “Alright, alright.”

“No, I’m not kidding. Because Mr. Higgins just told me to clean and to organize all the things by sport, right? And basketball, volleyball? Easy enough. Swimming? Self-explanatory. But how in the hell am I supposed to know what’s used for wrestling? Do I look like someone who knows this? No, I do not! Like, what is this even supposed to be?!”

Zayn picked up a black, plastic object up. Liam stepped closer, instantly realizing what it was and covering her mouth as she chuckled.

“Zayn, um, boys wear that to protect their, um, junk.”

“Oh, ew!”

Liam laughed as Zayn threw the groin guard away. Zayn looked at her, her eyebrows raised and a small, tight smile on her lips. She took a deep breath before walking towards her. She placed her hand on her waist, smearing all the male germs throughout her shirt and causing Liam to shriek between laughs.

“Don’t be disgusting!”

“It’s your fault I touched that!”

“No, it wasn’t! C’mon, stop!”

Zayn laughed, stepping back as Liam focused on her breathing. She took an antibacterial wipe from its bottle and picked up the groin guard, causing Liam to start laughing once again.

“Stop it. It’s not that funny,” said Zayn. Her narrow eyes would’ve probably been more effective if she hadn’t been laughing herself, scrunching up her nose as she did so. She didn’t want to think about the way it made her want to laugh again, the way she wanted to smile whenever Zayn did.

Thankfully, she was saved by Zayn’s question.

“Why do you avoid those people, though?”

Or maybe not.

Liam sighed, clearing her throat before speaking. “Oh, it’s not a lot of people, don’t worry. It’s just two girls who were mean to me for a little while before. They’ve stopped this year, but I don’t know if it’s because they’ve forgotten about me or because I’ve successfully managed to avoid having contact with them since last year.”

Zayn hummed. “I mean, I’m just a new girl who doesn’t know anything that’s going on around here, and this is not an invitation for you to tell me everything, but maybe that’s not always a good strategy? I’m just saying from experience, I mean.”

Liam sighed again, walking to a set of plastic containers and sitting above them.

“Yeah, I guess. I mean, I stopped playing football thanks to them and I miss that, so I guess I see what you mean.”

Zayn looked up from where she’d been cleaning a set of baseball gloves, raising an eyebrow.

“Again, I don’t know anything, but you stopped playing a sport simply because of two girls who most probably don’t know what they’re talking about?”

Liam shrugged, looking at Zayn up and down. She bit her lip and decided to just get it over with, since she was most certainly going to find out eventually or not.

“So, you’re a pretty chill person, right?” she asked, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Well, I think so, yeah, but several counselors in my previous schools might think otherwise,” said Zayn, placing her hands on her hips and tilting her head. “Why?”

Liam took a deep breath, trying to ignore the tightness in her chest. She didn’t want to think about it and what it meant. But, for some reason, it wasn’t as if she could just laugh it off as if it was nothing.

“So, like, I don’t know, it’s not a big deal,” she started, sitting down on the plastic container once more and grabbing the ends of it, careful not to break the cheap plastic with her strength. “But they used to make fun of me when we were younger, saying I was too fat even though I wasn’t and then that turned into saying that I was a lesbian-” She didn’t force herself to say this against the pressure and tightness in her chest, the way her throat was all knotted up. She didn’t. “Like, small stuff like that. And one day I had enough of it and quit the football team, since I thought being sporty was the root of it all. I’m really regretting it now, honestly, so save your breath about not letting the Muggles get to me or something like that. I’ll probably try out for the team again in a few weeks, don’t know yet.”

Zayn gave her a small smile from where she’d stopped storing the soccer balls in a container, having given her entire attention to her and her words. “Good. Don’t let them get to you, yeah. And you should definitely try out. What’s the worse that could happen?”

Liam scoffed, smiling despite the countless nights she’d spent trying to make a decision over such a simple thing. “I could fall in front of everyone, dismantle the goal posts while I rip my clothes to shreds, be the first girl to get rejected in the first minute of tryouts and get laughed at for the rest of my high school experience? And possibly community college, because, let’s be real, I don’t know what I want to be in the future and I’ll probably live in this small university town until the day I die? I’m going to be the grumpy old lady kids hate, the villian to their childish laughter and joy. This whole tryout is the start of my tragic backstory. Don’t laugh, I’m serious!”

Zayn covered her smile with a hand, her eyes scrunching up as she laughed away. “I’m sorry, but- Liam, babe, c’mon. Relax. I’m sure you’ll do a great job.”

“Sure I will,” she scoffed.

“I’m honest! I bet you’ll be the first pick out of them all.”

“You’ve never even seen me play!”

“Did I stutter? You’ll see me on the stands during your first game, cheering on you. And don’t give me any shit about you being on the bench because you’re so horrible at it. I’m sure you’ll be up and playing from the first day, yeah?”

Well, maybe couldn’t help the way her cheeks were so obviously reddening and visible to Zayn’s stare, but maybe she could stop- Nope, she could not stop herself from smiling. Damn it, even less when she looked up and saw Zayn staring back at her.

Ugh.

“Are you, though?”

“What?”

Zayn sighed, returning her attention on stacking the soccer balls in the most efficient way possible. She shook her head. “Forget it, that’s none of my business.”

“What’s none- Oh,” said Liam, once again tightening her hold on the cheap plastic on the edge of the container. She felt the chills going through her body, the tightness across her chest she got whenever someone made an insinuation on the subject. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to smile. “You mean if I’m gay? I- Nah, girls are great and beautiful and who wouldn’t want to be in love with one? But, no, they're not for me. I like guys too much for that.”

“Okay,” said Zayn with a shrug. “That’s okay, breathe. Like, I said, none of my business. S’just that there’s nothing wrong with liking girls, whatever those girls might think. I mean, I would know about people giving you shit-”

“No, I mean, I know that there’s nothing wrong-”

“S’okay, I know,” said Zayn, giving her a small smile and a nod. “Don’t worry about it.”

Liam nodded, standing up and tapping her fingers on her legs.

“So, I think they should be gone by now?”

Zayn looked at her. She exhaled, seeming to soften her expression and stance and her whole self as she did so. “Liam.”

Yeah, she could not deal with this.

“I should get back to the court. It’s not going to mop itself, you know,” said Liam, pointing to the door as she walked backwards towards it.

Zayn nodded, closing the plastic container and picking up a rag. “’Kay, see you later, then.”

She left the storage room, breathing a lot easily as she did so and realized it was once again empty without any sounds coming out of the locker room. She just needed to focus on the task at hand. Yeah, she could focus on mopping the basketball court and block out all her other thoughts. She could probably be the best mopper in the world if she made up her mind about it and focused well enough.

Yeah, she should do that.

She was proud to say that the court was spotlessly clean when she reached the corner of the gym. Literally spotless, if you ignored the area the two she-who-must-not-be-nameds had walked through when- oh.

She’d literally worked herself into a corner. Like, literally literally worked herself into the corner of the gym and would have to walk through her masterpiece when it was time to leave.

Liam sighed, sliding down the wall until she sat down on the floor. Maybe if she stared at the shininess of the wet floor in front of her, staring as it would slowly start making thin puddles before disappearing, maybe she could transport herself to the exit doors and not ruin anything.

“Hey, Liam-”

“Don’t step into the floors!”

Zayn stopped on the doorway, eyes wide as she looked between the floor and her sitting figure in the corner of the gym.

“I’m pretty sure it must be time already,” she said, sighing and leaning against the doorway. “Liam, please, you’re going to have let me step on this if it’s time. I don’t want to keep my mother and sisters waiting, c’mon.”

As if called by the devil of all things mopped, Mr. Higgins stepped out of his small office and stepped into the court. Liam sighed. Life was worthless at the end of the day, anyway. “Well, girls, it’s already four o’clock. Up you go, Liam. Here’s your phone, Zayn.”

Liam exhaled as she pushed herself off the floor, pouting a little even if she knew it was useless. “Well, I apologize for all the times I might’ve not recognized the hard job of the janitors here because I literally just spent an hour mopping this whole floor and it’s already ruined.”

Mr. Higgins laughed. “Well, I’m glad. But if it makes you feel better, at least it’s well done? You wouldn’t believe the amount of boys I’ve had mop this up and they don’t even know how to do it.”

Liam smiled, rolling her eyes at the thought. “Yeah, well, see you tomorrow, Mr. Higgins.”

“Please don’t let me see you two next week, alright? Now follow Malik out the door,” he smiled, as he picked up her equipment. She picked up her bag from his office and headed towards the closing exit door.

Zayn stood right in the middle of the hallway, looking up from the moment Liam crossed the door. She didn’t have to look at her expression a second time to figure out what was going on.

“Lost?” she smiled, trying to ignore the jittery feeling across her body.

“No,” scoffed Zayn.

“C’mon,” she said, nudging her with her elbow as she passed her by on her way out of the hallway.

“In my defense, I was half asleep when you brought me here,” said Zayn, hurrying up to walk beside her.

“Alright, but you should remember it from your gym classes.”

Zayn rolled her eyes, taking a deep breath as they went up the stairs. “Whatever, I just want to get home. I think I want to start planning my art project today and ignore my math homework.”

“Ha, I’ll probably do the opposite.”

“You actually want to do your math homework?”

“Yeah? It’s relaxing. You plan for your projects?”

“Yeah?” said Zayn, tilting her head at her. “So when it’s time to finally draw and paint, I know what I’m doing in.”

“Oh, I should probably do that when I figure out what I want to paint. Maybe then I’ll finally get an acceptable grade,” she shrugged, adjusting her backpack’s straps. Liam looked up at her questioning stare. “I guess I really can’t get better at drawing in the month we’ve been taking this class and the teacher knows this, but she always says that, like, I don’t blend my colors enough? But they seem alright to me, I don’t know.”

Zayn hummed, stopping before the doors to the outside world. “What are you good at? At drawing or painting, I mean.”

Liam blinked, taking a deep breath as she fiddled with bag’s straps. “Nothing?”

“No, c’mon, there must be something.”

Liam sighed, opening the door even if it was just a tactic to gain more time to think about it. Zayn gave her a look as she went out, however, leaving her to simply sigh again.

“I don’t know? Flowers, I guess?” she said, shrugging at Zayn, who gave her a small smile and a nod. “No, like, I doodle a lot of flowers in my notebooks. S’nothing fancy. I don’t think they’re bad, but they’re probably not even acceptable.”

“Well, not with that attitude,” said Zayn.

“No, Zayn, like, they’re horrible.”

Zayn sighed, turning around to look out to the parking spaces in front of the school where there were still a few cars at this hour. She looked at her once again, and Liam did everything in her to ignore the way she was a little breathless. It really made no sense, the way Zayn looked at her and the way she felt whenever she did.

She wasn’t an idiot. Well, she wasn’t a complete idiot. It was the same thing she’d felt at the beginning with Daniel a year ago before things started falling apart in her life. So she thought she knew what it was. She just didn’t know where these were coming from or why. It just didn’t make sense and Liam really didn’t want to think about it right now, but she’d already fallen down this hole and it was so hard to stop thinking about it now and-

“Okay,” said Zayn. She lifted her chin as she smiled, which probably wouldn’t help things in Liam’s side of things, but at least her words provided a good enough distraction. “Listen, they put me in advanced algebra because I already took geometry and shit at my other schools. Except that it seems the material they cover in this school isn’t the same as my previous ones and the class here is, like, actually advanced. So now I’m behind pretty much everything. And, seeing as I was already pretty shit at math, I’m doing horribly now. So are you good at math?”

Liam shrugged. “I’m rather good at it, yeah.”

“So, how about this? I help you out with your art projects and you’ll help me out with my math. Might be a lot more work for you-”

“Yes, yeah, I’ll definitely do it,” said Liam, quickly nodding and smiling even though she could feel her eyes growing bigger and, God, she wasn’t that desperate, okay? “Like, I’m not to the point where I’m completely desperate yet, but I want to avoid that. And you’re, like, amazing at art in general? I mean, I’m probably not as good in math as you think I am-”

“There’s no way you can find math relaxing without being really good at it, Liam,” Zayn pointed out.

Liam took a deep breath, looking up at the darkening sky and then smiling at Zayn. “Okay, let’s do this. You show me your math book or whatever tomorrow and I’ll show you my wannabe-flower doodles. So we can see what we’re getting into before actually committing to helping each other out.”

“I mean, we don’t have to-”

“Oh, no, you definitely have to see my flowers before you agree to help me out with art class,” said Liam, trying to be as serious as possible and to frown as if they were horrible. However, she couldn’t help but smile at Zayn’s chuckle. “Trust me, you’ll have a lot to work with. They’re not pretty.”

“And I’m not good at math and I get frustrated when I don’t understand it,” shrugged Zayn, still smiling. How was she still smiling? God, she needed to stop doing that.

“Okay, so, we’ll talk about it tomorrow,” nodded Liam.

Zayn looked at her, sighing. “Fine, but only because my family is going to flip if they have to wait even more for me, yeah?”

“Sure, Zayn,” smiled Liam, starting to walk in the opposite direction from where Zayn had pointed towards when talking about her family. “See you tomorrow, then.”

“See ya.”

Liam took a breath as she crossed the street. She could feel her body relaxing as she walked home, but she still felt the way her heart seemed to beat quicker, the way everything felt cold, the way she had to focus on her breathing. It wasn’t a big deal, but she just didn’t _understand_ and she hated that feeling so much.

Liam took another deep breath as she wiped a few frustrating tears. Right, she would totally need to go for another long run today.

~~~

Liam handed over the notebook, trying to focus on the students around in the cafeteria instead of Zayn’s humming. “They’re not bad, Liam. They’re nice flowers.”

“For some doodles, they’re alright.”

“No, well, I mean- Yeah, okay,” shrugged Zayn, flipping through the pages in her notebook. “But you’d spend more time in your art project than you do in your doodles during history class. So they should come out better than these, which are not bad themselves.”

“Debatable, but okay.”

Zayn chuckled, handing over her own notebook. “Most of it is also doodles, except that this happens when I get frustrated with math and decide it’s not worth it anymore.”

“Ah, I mostly doodle in history class because, if I don’t, Mr. Cowell’s voice would put me down to sleep.”

“I mean, that’s what I do too,” smiled Zayn. “Which is probably why he hates me. Well, that and because I’m always late to his class.”

Liam flipped over the pages, trying not to stop and observe the detailed designs splattered all over the notebook. Liam looked at Zayn, who sat tense beside her as her eyes flicked between her and her notebook. “So, you’re almost always frustrated in math.”

“Yeah, pretty much,” shrugged Zayn, biting her lower lip as she focused on the notebook.

Louis sat down beside Liam, muttering a hey before drinking from her water bottle. Liam flicked through the pages until she reached one that wasn’t as full with doodles. She felt Zayn relax to her other side, though she still could feel Louis’ stare going back and forth between the two of them.

“Have we been blessed to be free from third-wheeling today?” she asked, looking around the cafeteria. “I can’t see them but I’m going to assume that they’re shoving their tongues down their throats or eating something else, if you know what I mean.”

Liam exhaled, dropping her sandwich on the tray. “Why, Louis?

“I mean, we were all thinking it,” she shrugged.

“Literally none of us here were thinking that before you came along,” muttered Zayn. She picked up her fork and slid her tupperware closer to herself before looking at them for a while. “So, then, Harry and Niall are like legit dating? Like, for real?”

Louis and Liam both shrugged.

“I mean, that’s what everyone thinks,” muttered Louis.

“They’ve always kind of been like that, though,” explained Liam. “So no one’s entirely sure, but I don’t think they’ve ever said that they aren’t?

“I mean, I wouldn’t be that surprised that they don’t know that everyone thinks that?” asked Zayn, tilting her head as she spoke.

“Nah, they must know.”

“Yeah, like everyone knows,” said Louis, raising her hands. “Like, I’ve hated Harry for years and that’s how it’ll go down until the ends of time. Niall’s pretty chill, though, but I hate Harry more than I like her. But, anyway, the point is that even I know that everyone thinks they’re dating.

Liam frowned, looking at Louis as she picked up her sandwich once more. “Why do you even hate her so much, anyway?”

Louis sighed, dropping the sandwich and throwing her hands into the air. “Why don’t you hate her? That’s the question.”

“I like her,” said Liam, looking at her cautiously. “She can be a little over the top sometimes, but she’s lovely.”

“She’s always been nice to me. So I guess I don’t have a reason to,” shrugged Zayn.

“So, again, why do you hate her so much? I mean, if it can be known to the universe or some other dramatic reason like that,” added Liam.

She heard Zayn huff out a little laugh beside her, but her attention was in the way Louis turned around to properly glare at her.

“Okay, Miss Sarcasm, you’re probably going to laugh at this, but okay. So, one time when we were in fourth grade-”

“ _Oh my God._ ”

“Don’t interrupt me, Malik. Anyway, we were playing outside at lunch time and there’s this juice pouch on the ground, right? Well, I happen to be standing right next to it. I’m chilling. I’m living my life. Harry comes and decides that she wants to step on it. Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, no, it wasn’t. Because the next thing I know, my whole jeans are wet and it looked like I’d peed on myself and I had to stay like that for the rest of the day. With people making fun of me, while also smelling like apple juice. I am allergic to apple juice, Liam!”

“There’s an apple in your tray, which you must’ve bought with your own money,” Zayn pointed out between laughs. “I highly doubt you’re allergic to apple juice, Louis.”

“Okay, I might not be allergic to apple juice,” admitted Louis as she sighed and placed her hands over the table. “But I am highly traumatized by it and whenever someone even mentions it, I’m reminded of that horrible day. Liam, stop laughing! It’s not funny!”

Liam laughed harder, covering her face with her hands and leaning against the table. “I’m sorry, I just can’t.” Deep breaths, Liam. Deep breaths. “That was so many years ago, Louis! My God.”

“Okay, but it’s the principle of the thing!” exclaimed Louis. Liam looked at her, still laughing, she was glad to see that Louis was smiling too, pouting a little.

“Okay, okay,” said Liam, calming down a little. “I guess it’s my fault for asking. That’s incredible, though. I wonder if Harry even remembers it.”

“Probably not,” said Louis, biting down on her sandwich. “But, hey, honesty is the best policy. She must know that I don’t like her that much, either way.”

“First of all, gross,” said Zayn, making a face from the way Louis had talked with her mouth full of food. “But, again, I don’t think she’s the type of girl that would notice that. Niall, yeah, maybe. But Harry would probably think you’re messing with her.”

“Nah, she must know,” said Louis.

“Yeah,” agreed Liam. She turned around to look at Louis, who raised an eyebrow at her. “Alright, so do you hate me too?”

Louis sighed, leaning back against her chair and crossing her arms. “Okay, I don’t hate you. It’s just…” She shrugged.

“No, c’mon. I’ve just been wondering this for a while now and I’d like an answer.”

Louis tilted her head as she looked at her up and down. “Alright, so I joined the girls’ football team two years ago, right? You were pretty good and I thought I was pretty good. So, I’d built this idea in my head that between the two of us we could really turn the team around. Make it something that people actually respect in this school, you know. Well, I try out, I get in, and then I find out you’d quit the team at the beginning of term. I figure you already know, but for Zayn’s benefit, we ended up losing the season.”

Liam took a deep breath, suddenly focused on a piece of lettuce that had fallen from her sandwich. If she was going to shred it as she ignored the stares from the two girls beside her, she might as well try to do it as evenly as possible.

“Oh.”

“So, honestly, it’s nothing personal. Except football’s quite personal to me, though, but that’s beside the point. I think,” she added, returning her attention to her own sandwich.

Liam took another deep breath, trying to calm down. It seemed that was all she was doing these days, but perhaps that was a thought for another time.

“Well,” she said, tapping her fingers on the table. “I’d been thinking of trying out for the team in a few weeks.”

Louis held up her hand, putting down her bottle. Liam didn’t even have time to blink before Louis’ hands were on her shoulders, shaking them just slightly. “Yes! You definitely have to try out and come back into the team! Don’t even think about it, just do it! Like, I bet you’re a bit out of practice, but I’m sure you’re better than some of the other girls in the team. You’re a sure pick. You have to do try out, Liam!”

Liam smiled, fully aware of the way she must’ve been blushing but she couldn’t bring herself to care about that. “I mean, I still run pretty much every day. But, I don’t know, I’ll have to adapt myself to thinking in a group mentality and being in a team, so I don’t know.”

“I repeat, you’ll definitely be better than some of the girls in our team. I love them, well, I love almost all of them, but some of them are absolutely shit at playing,” she said, tightening her hold on her shoulders and, yeah, she didn’t have any problem believing her when she said that soccer was a little personal for her. She could understand, but that didn’t stop her from grimacing and covering Louis’ hands and hoping that she’d understand.

She thankfully took back her hands, but kept them raised. She looked at her pointedly. “Liam, alright. I know I haven’t exactly been all that warm and friendly to you recently, so I guess it’s a bit unfair of me to expect you to believe me all of the sudden, especially when I was the one who had been leaving notes on your locker-”

“That was you?!”

“Yes, but that’s not the point!” exclaimed Louis, raising her hands once again. She looked at Zayn, smiling a little. “So, I might’ve had been leaving notes on Liam’s locker throughout the entirety of last year. Just small, nice things like “Don’t drink the apple juice from the cafeteria today if you don’t want to get sick” or “Don’t go to the girls’ bathroom if you don’t want to get attacked by a basilisk.” Those sort of stupid things.”

“It really freaked me out at first,” said Liam, turning around to stare at Zayn, who looked like she was trying not to laugh. Liam’s eyes grew wider and she nodded, because it was true, someone- Louis had done that almost every week! Yet, it only caused Zayn to laugh.

“Zayn, are you going to try out as well?” asked Louis.

Zayn only laughed harder, laying her head down over the table.

“Oh, worth a try. I think we’ve lost her,” sighed Louis. “But, back to the point, please try out for the soccer team. I honestly mean it when I say that you were the best player in the team. If you come back, you’ll be second best because, let’s beat it, I’m much better than you. So, please, come to the tryouts.”

“What tryouts?”

Louis sighed, covering her face with her hands as Harry sat down beside her.

“Why did you have to come back? We were doing just fine without you.”

Harry frowned. “Don’t be rude. I expect you to be in proper behavior when Niall sits with us in a while because she’s been having a bad day and she doesn’t need your negativity.” She placed the tray in front of her, immediately picking up a piece of an orange. “Does anyone want a bit of orange?”

“They were selling oranges?” asked Liam, grimacing and slumping a little in her chair.

“Um, I don’t think so? I just found this orange and picked it up,” she shrugged.

“So, you just saw an orange laying around somewhere and decided you’d pick it up and eat it?” asked Zayn, laughing a little.

“Yeah? I don’t see the big deal about it,” she shrugged. “But, yeah, what tryouts?”

“Football tryouts,” said Liam, looking over to her. “I told Louis I was thinking of trying out for the team again and she was trying to convince me to do it.”

Harry shrugged again. “Well, I think you’d do well in it again. But you should only do it if you think that it’ll make you happy.”

“I mean, yeah,” said Louis, turning around to glare at Harry. “But she also needs to think about the greater good here. If she gets into the team, which she surely will if she tries out, we might actually stand a chance to win the season this year.”

“I just don’t think it’s very nice that you’re pressuring her already. Winning’s nice, but it’s not always the most important thing,” she shrugged.

“Are you even listening to yourself?”

Liam sighed, leaving the two of them to bicker to her left. Liam felt a nudge on her right leg, looking up to see Zayn glancing at her. Her eyebrows were all scrunched up together and Liam didn’t want to think about the way her hand was still over her thigh.

“Alright?” she asked lowly, barely heard over the other two’s bickering.

Liam gave her a small smile, nodding. Zayn smiled back at her. Zayn’s hand slid away from her thigh, her fingers brushing their goodbye.

~~~

“So, Liam, you seem pretty level-headed.”

Liam exhaled, forgetting about the dirty blackboard in front of her and turning around to look at Harry where she was erasing doodles in the desks. Or, at least, that was what Liam hoped she was doing. In the previous two classrooms, she always ended up laughing too much at some of the commentaries and bad jokes, later arguing that there was no way she could erase such a masterpiece.

Harry raised her eyebrows. Liam shrugged. Harry sighed, resting her head on one of her hands.

“Say that I want to ask a girl out,” started Harry, throwing her hands out into the air. “How would you suggest that I do that?”

Liam shrugged, twisting the damp rag in her hands. “Um, how should I know?”

“No, okay, say… I’m going to ask you out, how would you like me to do it? Liam’s answer for a million dollars. Go.”

Liam frowned. “Well, I’d expect something a little bit more romantic than that question? You’re not-”

“Oh, no, I forgot to make my game show presenter’s voice. Niall does it better anyway and she’s not here,” she sighed, pouting. “I’m not asking you out, though. Sorry. You’re lovely and we should definitely hang out, except platonically.”

“Okay, well, if you’re going to ask Niall out, I guess you could always just ask her to go somewhere with you and make it clear from the beginning that it’s a date.”

Harry frowned, tilting her head a little as she looked at her from across the classroom. “Well, I want to ask out Taylor from the year above us, but thanks for the recommendation? I guess I’ll forward it to Niall's boyfriend, though he should know how to take her on a date by now. Well, I hope, at least.”

It was now Liam’s turn to frown, biting her lower lip as she reevaluated all the times she’d seen Niall and Harry together. And, nope, it still didn’t change her perspective on things.

Everything was so confusing lately.

“But, um,” she said, scratching the back of your head. “Aren’t you and Niall dating?”

Harry scoffed, the frown still sitting oddly on her face. “No? She’s my best friend. I love her, but no. She's been with Bressie for two years now and-” Her eyes grew wide. “Oh my God, is that why you guys joke about being third-wheelers?”

“Yeah?” shrugged Liam, causing Harry to mutter out a small huh. “I always thought you were dating, sorry.”

Harry leaned back on her chair, crossing her arms. “Do you know if someone else thinks that?”

Liam sighed. Harry’s small frown was already undoing her, having ever seen her like this, and she really didn’t want to do this. “A lot of people?”

“A lot? Or, like, a lot a lot of people?” Liam looked down, untwisting the rag in her hand and twisting it once more. “Liam.”

“Okay, like, pretty much everyone thinks that,” she said with an exhale.

Harry sunk into her seat, a hand going to her hair. Liam walked towards her, her feet almost going in their own accord, sitting down in the seat in front of her and covering her other hand over the desk.

“Suddenly the way people have treated us for so long makes so much sense?” she said, her eyes wide. “Shit, my mother’s always telling me how I don’t see anything even if it’s under my own nose. Literally everyone thinks that, then?”

Harry took a deep breath, both of her hands now in her hair as she did so.

“Haz…”

Harry looked at her at the sound of her old nickname, back from they were all kids. She blinked, quickly standing up straighter in her seat. “Right, we should continue cleaning.”

“Harry.”

“It’s just… Fuck.”

Liam sighed, trying not to get sad herself at Harry’s words and how she really couldn’t do anything to fix this

“I’m sorry.”

“No,” said Harry, nodding to herself. “Thank you for telling me. Like, I… I think I’m still going to ask Taylor out, but maybe now I can have this in mind when I do it? I’m not sure of what I’m going to do with this information now. But let’s finish cleaning this classroom, yeah?”

Liam smiled at Harry, patting a hand as she stood up to continue cleaning the blackboard.

And, Liam couldn’t help but hugging her as they finished cleaning the classroom and once more before heading back to their detention hall, but she couldn’t help herself from feeling like this detention wasn’t as fun as yesterday’s with Zayn’s.

Well, not that yesterday had been entirely fun. It had been fun, yet anxiety-inducing and Liam didn’t want to think about it. And, okay, detention was not supposed to be fun. But, still…

She still didn’t know how she felt about everything happening around her, and she definitely didn’t know how to feel about the smile Zayn gave her when she found her and Niall as she was leaving the classroom with her bookbag in hand.

“Where’s Harry?” asked Niall.

“Oh, she just left. She said she was going to walk home,” she said, shrugging a little.

Niall frowned, quickly going in and out the classroom with her bag in hand. Zayn raised her eyebrows, turning to stare at her with the same smile on her lips.

“Wait for me just for a second while I get my bag?” she asked. “Don’t wanna get lost.”

Liam finally smiled, placing her hands on her hoodie’s pockets. “What would you do without me?”

“Get lost in this horrible labyrinth the government has given us as a school.”

Liam rolled her eyes. “If you’re not out in three seconds, I’m leaving. And I’m counting them.”

Zayn smiled, heading inside the room and quickly returning with her bookbag in hand. “My hero,” she sighed dramatically.

Liam rolled her eyes again, smiling a little.

“So, listen, about the tutoring, if you want to call it that,” started Liam, scratching the back of her neck. “When could we start? Because I have to work on this essay for next Monday, and for that I actually need to read it first, so I’m not going to have enough time this weekend. But if we leave it for the following weekend, we’d be working against the clock. And I just know that you’ll try to start explaining things to me and I’ll get snappy with you because I’m stressed about everything.”

Zayn nodded. “Okay, fair enough. And I’ve got a test next Thursday? Or the one after one? I wrote it down on my notebook, so I’ll check and tell you later. So we need to start soon, because I’m not good at cramming things either and I’m also going to get very frustrated and snappy. Except that I know that I’m going to be like that anyway, regardless of whether we’re running against the clock or not. So, when can we start?”

Liam hummed. She stopped walking because she was thinking hard, taking out her agenda from her backpack to see their calendar a little better. Definitely not because the exit doors were already in the distance and, for some reason she couldn’t exactly explain, she didn’t want to be all alone in her house and preferred to stretch out her time with Zayn.

If they both wanted to start as soon as possible, it had to be tomorrow.

Zayn bit her bottom lip as she frowned. “I have to take care of my younger sisters tomorrow, so can it be in mine?”

“Yeah, sure, totally,” she said. “It beats being all alone in my house.”

Zayn’s eyes grew wider as she barked out a laugh and shook her head. “Oh, trust me, you don’t know what you’re saying.”

~~~

Maybe it was because Liam was the youngest and her older sisters had both moved out a few years ago, too long ago to remember how crazy her house had been when the five of them lived together. So, yeah, she hadn’t exactly known what she was saying.

“But there was a dog!” her youngest sister exclaimed. Safaa, Zayn had said. Zayn gave her a sigh before closing her front door behind her. “Why do they put the dog on the lawn for everyone to pet if I’m not allowed to pet them? And I think all dogs should be pet! They deserve it!”

“Saf, you’re eight,” said Zayn, looking up from where she and Waliyah were chuckling. “You don’t have to advocate for their petting rights just yet.”

“But I want to!”

“I want to pet every dog I meet too,” said Liam, looking down to the girl's wide eyes. “Unfortunately, we can’t.”

“That’s so sad.”

“I know, it’s horrible."

“I’m going to make some sandwiches,” said Waliyah, heading out from the entrance hallway. Zayn grabbed her hand, gesturing to the stairs at the end of the hallway.

“Go help your sister, I’ll make them,” she said, gesturing Liam to take off her shoes.

That’s how Liam found herself in Zayn’s room, taking a sandwich from the desk as she looked at all the music posters in the wall.

“They’re not really that much,” shrugged Zayn, sitting down on the floor. “I have a few more but I haven’t had the energy to put them up yet. Unpacking is so exhausting.”

“So what type of music you like then? Other than like Rihanna and the Black Eyed Peas,” she said, sitting down on the floor beside Zayn.

Simply looking at set of boxes by the desk made her exhausted, nevermind the ones she could see peeking out of the closet in the corner of the room.

“Pretty much anything with a nice beat,” shrugged Zayn, taking a bite of her sandwich. “Like, instrumental music is great and so is classical and acoustic stuff. But I need a nice beat or else I’ll fall asleep.”

“Well, I mean, from what I’ve learnt of you recently, it’s not that hard to make you fall asleep. You slept thought another technical class today again. You snored a bit and everything.”

Zayn looked at her, a tight smile on her lips. “I do not snore.”

“Oh, but you did.”

Zayn sighed again, leaning over to take her cup of tea from the desk. “Anyway, let’s start, yeah? Because if we keep talking about sleeping, I’m going to fall asleep.”

“A surprise,” smiled Liam, rolling her eyes at her.

“Oh, shut up,” she said, shoving her just a little before dragging her backpack over her. “What are we going to start with? Maths or art?”

“Um, no offense, but maybe math? Not because art is easier or anything, but because numbers are definitely going to be more confusing if we leave them for later in the day?” said Liam.

She took a deep breath, trying not to roll her eyes at the way she always ended up sounding as she was making a question. She was trying to be more optimistic and confident in her choices, so that was definitely not helping. Yet, it wasn’t that easy to do when Zayn was tying her long hair in a bun. A few strands of her falling off onto her face, which made Zayn frown and sigh out with a pout, so it was honestly really difficult to be confident at that moment, in her opinion.

Zayn caught her looking as she opened a bobby pin her her teeth, smirking as she pinned those stray hairs down. “Yeah, we can start with maths.”

Liam nodded, hurrying to drag her backpack towards her. She could at least do her own homework while Zayn worked on hers, taking breaks whenever she needed help. She wasn’t here to just stare at Zayn tie her hair, to ignore the feeling in her gut when she found herself staring, to ignore how her eyes prickled when she ignored the feeling-

Liam sighed, opening her notebook and watching Zayn do the same.

“Okay, so, you need to learn the equations, first of all,” said Liam, tying up her own hair to avoid Zayn’s stare. Her hair was too short, though, the part near the nape of her neck sticking out to brush her shoulders, but whatever. “I know I’m trying to be positive and everything, but you’ll fail if you don’t learn them.”

“Right, of course,” said Zayn, placing the open book in front of her as she crossed her legs. “I don’t know them right now, but I can learn them. My problem is more, like, knowing which of them I have to use.”

“Okay, but you can’t know which one you need to use if you don’t know any of them, you see?”

Zayn sighed. “Alright, I guess that makes sense.”

Liam read the book over and examined the exercises Zayn had circled out.

She looked up, trying not to feel frustrated about the fact that Zayn was still staring at her. It’s not that she didn’t expect this to happen, seeing as they were both alone in her bedroom as they tried to study. It’s more that Zayn was staring at her with a small smile and tense shoulders, like she knew something that Liam didn’t, like she was waiting for Liam to do or say something. And, Liam, well, she definitely didn’t want to think about what this could be.

So, yeah, maybe this wasn’t that good of an idea.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long until Zayn put a playlist to play softly in the background as they both started working on their respective homeworks. This, she could deal with this.

Liam was checking Zayn’s first round of exercises as someone knocked on the open door. They both looked up to see, without a doubt, Zayn’s mother looking at her.

“Oh, you must be Liam, then?” she asked, smiling. Even from the distance, she could see that her eyes scrunched up together in the exact way that Zayn did when she smiled.

“I left Liyah with Safaa because we needed to start on our maths homework,” said Zayn, leaning back against her bed frame.

“S’okay,” her mother said, crossing her arms. “You staying for dinner then, Liam?”

“I mean, if it’s not a problem,” she said, looking at Zayn.

Zayn smiled a little, nudging her leg with her knee just slightly. “Wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t.”

“So I’ll take that as a yes, because there’s no way I’m taking no as an answer, alright?” she said, nodding at Liam, who couldn’t help but smile just a little. “Especially knowing that you’re helping Zayn out with her math class. The least we can do around here.”

“Ammi…” said Zayn, tilting her head as she took a deep breath.

“Okay, okay, leave you two to study then,” she said before leaving off to go somewhere else across the hallway.

“Sorry, everyone that comes inside our house can’t leave until they’ve been fed,” shrugged Zayn, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

“S’alright.”

“And you know, the fact that you’re a friend makes them incredibly happy,” she shrugged. “Don’t get a lot of that when I’m moving a lot from school to school.”

“Why do you switch from school so much, actually?” she asked, leaning against the bed frame. Zayn took a deep breath beside her. “If it’s not a personal question, or anything. You don’t have to answer in that case. It’s just that you’re pretty cool and it’s been great hanging out with you this week and it’d be sad to have you leave in a few months.”

“No, yeah, hopefully I won’t have to move from school again,” sighed Zayn, propping her head against her bed. “I haven’t heard anyone even fake-whispering things at me in this one, so maybe I won’t have to? I like it here too, even if I’m always getting lost.”

Liam laughed, covering her face with her hands as Zayn looked back at her. “I keep telling you, you’ll get used to it if you stick around long enough.” She sighed, turning enough to prop an arm on the bed and look at Zayn properly. “I’ve found that if you keep your head low, people won’t talk shit about you. Speaking from experience, and all. But it shouldn’t stop you, though?”

Zayn shrugged. “Like, I know it shouldn’t stop me. But there’s a line, sometimes, yeah? In some schools I’ve gotten pretty intense comments and everything because of, like, my religion or skin tone or sexuality. Sometimes it’s just better to look for a more accepting school, instead of continuing to get into fights about it.”

“Sexuality?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowing. And, oh, maybe that wasn’t exactly an appropriate question or even appropriately asked. “Sorry.”

Zayn frowned, huffing out a small laugh. “Yeah? Wait, didn’t you know?”

“Know what?”

“That I’m, like, incredibly gay?” laughed Zayn. And, oh, well… That might make sense now that Liam thought about it. But Zayn’s hands were now covering her own, making her look up from where Zayn was smiling fondly at her. “I’m sorry, I’m not laughing at you. I’m not as open like Niall and Harry are, but I just assume that everyone knows and that’s usually enough.”

Liam nodded, trying not to let her mind wander to their previous interactions. “I guess I’m just bad at recognizing these sorts of things then. And did you know that Harry and Niall are actually not dating?”

Zayn laughed, shaking her head. “No, come on, they must be dating.”

“They aren’t!” said Liam, sitting up straight to look at Zayn. “I thought so too, but Harry told me yesterday that they weren’t. She didn’t know that everyone thought that, apparently!”

Zayn laughed again, taking a deep breath as she calmed down a little as she looked at her. “This school, though. This one’s too weird for me.”

Liam nodded, trying not to bite her lower lip. “You’ll get used to it. But let’s get to work, yeah?”

Zayn nodded, pushing herself off from the bed frame.

However, it wasn’t long before they were interrupted once more. Safaa walked in, deeply exhaling before plopping her small self down on Zayn’s bed.

“Liyah wants me to do my homework,” she sighed. “Why can’t you watch me instead, Zayn? You don’t make me do my homework.”

Zayn laughed, turning around to look at her youngest sister. “I do, I just don’t make it obvious that you’re doing homework.”

“So you lie to me.”

“No, I make it fun. That’s very different. And I’m sorry, but I need to do my own homework too, babe.”

Liam turned around, seeing Zayn faking a pout as Safaa sighed and stood up to walk out of the room. Zayn looked at her, still pouting until breaking into a small laugh. Liam couldn’t help imagining herself kissing zayn's pout away one day and turning it into a smile and-

Oh.

Okay.

Liam looked away, trying to focus on the notebook between her hands. She needed to keep her breathing even. She definitely needed to stop everything before she started to cry, if the tightness in her chest and throat were anything to go by.

She took out her phone, glad to see the time.

“I actually forgot that me and my family watch this show that’s on in about an hour? It’s a tradition, we watch it every Thursday when my parents get home from work, and I really can’t miss it? So, I think I should be going or we’ll all be really upset.”

“What about your art project?”

“Oh, um, yeah,” she said, taking a deep breath and nodding to herself. “I think I’m just going to do flowers, like you’d suggested? I don’t know how, yet. Maybe draw them in her hair, or something. I don’t know. I still have a few more days before I have to start working on it, so I’ll figure it out. But let me give you my phone number, in case you have any questions with your math homework. ‘Cause it not your fault, so no need for your education to suffer.”

She huffed out a little laugh. If it sounded a little off, even to her own ears, then no one needed to say anything about it.

Liam picked up her pencil, writing her digits in the corner of Zayn’s notebook. She started to place her things in her backpack. She could see from the corner of her eyesight that Zayn was staring at her, frowning at her. She was definitely not going to look at her straight in the eye, if she was going to stare at her like that.

“Okay,” she heard her sigh. “D’you need me to give you a ride?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head too frantically for it to be normal. She stood up, once again ignoring the way Zayn seemed to stare into her soul. “I can walk, don’t worry about it. My house’s only a few streets away anyway.”

“Okay. You alright?” Liam nodded, clearing her throat as Zayn stood up. “Okay, I’ll show you out then.”

She didn’t mind the hand Zayn placed on her shoulder as they passed by the kitchen and she excused herself from dinner. Or the smile she gave her as she said her goodbyes and opened the door. It made it harder for her to breathe and she finally understood the meaning behind this feeling, but she didn’t mind it.

Liam breathed in as she walked out to the street, wrapping her arms around herself to protect herself from the autumn winds. She tried to keep herself from crying. She only needed to walk five more streets in order to get into the solace of her house. She could do this, she told herself.

But she couldn’t help but feeling like such an _idiot._ She couldn’t lie to herself and say that it’d come out of nowhere when, really, the signs had been in front of her all along. Because of course she thought Zayn was beautiful, who didn’t? But, if she’d just stopped trying to ignore everything, if she had acknowledged her feelings, she could’ve noticed a lot sooner.

That was probably why Zayn smiled at her like that, almost a smirk even if it there was never any malice behind it. Not that Zayn liked her because she herself was gay, but maybe she had had at least a hunch about it. Was that a thing? People said that was a thing. And, likewise, just because Liam was apparently a little gay herself, didn’t mean that she liked Zayn. She simply thought that she was pretty and she was pretty sure she was happier whenever she was with her and just wanted to be with her, even if they never actually kissed-

_Okay, shit._

She wiped away her tears, seeing her house in the distance. Her mother’s car wasn’t in the driveway yet, giving her a slightest sense of relief. She didn’t want her worrying about her tears, asking if someone had been mean to her again. She would want to talk about the reasons behind her tears, because how could she explain it to her when she didn’t even know how to explain it to herself?

She grabbed her keys from her backpack. She breathed in, trying to get the keys inside the keyhole but her hands wouldn’t stop shaking and God, she just wanted to be home. That was all, really.

She didn’t even know why she was crying so much. It wasn’t as if this was all that big of a shock, she told herself as she closed the door behind her. Everything was slowly coming together in her head and it made so much sense that it didn’t surprise her at all.

She just didn’t know how this could be, when she’d only properly known Zayn for less than a week. She wasn’t supposed to smile whenever Zayn laughed. She wasn’t supposed to want to be around her all the time. She wasn’t supposed to hang out in either of their rooms after school, even if it was just to do homework. She wasn’t supposed to want to kiss her in such a short time.

But yet, it all made sense. It was no use denying it. It was no use lying to herself.

Liam took a deep breath, slightly unsure of how she got into her room. She was determined to get to the bottom of this. She couldn’t ignore this any longer. She just needed to breathe first. She could to that. Yeah, she could definitely do that.

~~~

Liam sat down in her chair, opening her bookbag. She took out her sketching pad, a pencil or two, and her eraser. She opened the smaller pocket, looking through her things. She didn’t even know why she carried with some of them. Like, really, when was she ever going to use her fake Swiss Army knife? She didn’t even know why she’d bought that. It wasn’t as useful as she thought it would be, unlike her earphones. The opportunity to use her earphones arose every day during art class but she never seemed to carry them.

Liam sighed, covering her face with her hands. The bell rang outside the classroom, shrilling for a few seconds. Liam could relate.

“Damn, did a hurricane pass by our table?”

Liam looked up to Louis sitting in front of her, immediately moving to grab one of her knick-knacks on the table. Liam swatted her hand away as Zayn sat down beside her.

“I just lost my earphones again,” she said, taking a small mirror out of Louis’ hands. “Or forgot them at home. Both are possi- Stop that! Didn’t your mother teach you to not touch what’s not yours?”

“Didn’t your mother teach you that sharing is caring? Don’t be rude,” shrugged Louis. She placed the fake Swiss knife back on the table and flashed a warm smile at her. “I’m just messing a little with you. Sorry.”

Niall and Harry seemed to choose this exact moment to walk to their table, a pair of hands immediately grabbing at a pair of mints in the pile. Zayn hummed a little beside her, hands going up to flip over her Batman keychain.

Liam sighed, looking up at the ceiling. It was October. Just two more months before Christmas break and then another term- How was she going to survive, honestly?

The bell rang once more outside the classroom, snapping Liam out of her small existential crisis. She lifted herself up from her chair, quickly re-placing all her stuff in her backpacks.

“Didn’t see you today at lunch, Liam,” said Harry, pouting at her from her corner of the table. “Missed you.”

“Oh, well, I simply had my lunch at the library,” she shrugged, smiling a little. “Didn’t think it’d be that big of a deal if I did.”

The four girls around her just looked at her, eyebrows raised. Liam felt herself blushing, so she leaned forward to the table and placed her head on her hands. Niall and Louis frowned at her, before speaking at the same time.

“Of course it’s a big deal! It just messes up the whole dynamic between the five of us.”

“Ms. White lets you eat in the library?” asked Louis, placing her hands over the table. “As in, ingesting food in her sacred space full of books, her sacred items.”

Liam blinked, biting her bottom lip a little as she looked between the two of them. “I have no idea what to say about Niall’s thing, but, yes, Ms. White lets me eat in the library. I wasn’t aware that this was something out of the usual?”

“Liam, of course we want you to have lunch with us. But, to more important matters, Ms. White’s super rude to everyone. Heck, she’s even rude to me!” said Niall, her eyes growing wide as she leaned back against her chair.

“To be fair, though,” said Harry, taking her hand to her hair and messing it up a little. “She did catch you that one time with your hand down Bressie’s jeans. When was that? Two years ago? I think so… But, anyway, maybe that influences her behavior towards you, even if just a little? She’s always been lovely towards me.”

“Oh, that’s true.”

“One time I went in and she just looked at me and said ‘no,’” said Louis, a small smile on her lips. “I didn’t even say or do anything. Just ‘no.’ It was glorious. Though I’m pretty sure I was there for a class, actually, so it really wasn’t as glorious as it could’ve been.”

Zayn’s hand brushed her knee under the table, making Liam look at her and forget about the other three girls laughing at one of Louis’ pranks she’d done at the library.

“You alright?” she asked.

Liam looked away, focusing her attention on scrolling down her Instagram feed. Zayn’s hand moved away. Liam tried not to allow her thoughts to linger on how much she missed her touch already. Liam took a deep breath and nodded.

“Just a bit tired,” she shrugged, tapping a picture of a cute dog. “Didn’t manage to sleep well.”

Zayn hummed under her breath, shifting a little bit closer. Liam tried to fight the urge to move away, even if just slightly.

Because it wasn’t a lie. She hadn’t done any of her homework because she’d been unable to focus yesterday, so she’d found herself reading articles and watching youtube videos until the late hours in the night.

Even then, with her laptop closed and laying on the desk on the other side of the room, she’d been unable to sleep due to her whirring thoughts; thinking about all the signs, all the things that she’d ignored and slowly remembering things she’d forcibly forgotten. She’d been unable to calm down her rapid beating heart, her shallow breathing because she was too busy trying to stop feeling like such an idiot.

She’d woken up before her alarm rang, already feeling restless and going up for a morning run. It’d helped her calm and organize her thoughts with every step, helping her breathe easier.

She’d definitely try out for the soccer team. And, yeah, Louis was right. She could definitely rejoin without a problem. She’d stop feeling off whenever she saw a pretty girl or a pretty boy and just live her life. She could do that. She didn’t know how, but she could totally do that. Optimism.

Except the latter resolution currently seemed easier said than done when she looked up at Zayn frowning and fiddling with the ends of her hoodie.

“S’just, I don’t know,” said Zayn with shrug. “I wanted to make sure we’re, like, okay. That I didn’t make you uncomfortable or anything yesterday…”

“Oh,” said Liam, clearing her throat and unlocking her phone once again. “Yeah, we’re cool. Definitely. It wasn’t you. At all… Sorry if I made you think that.”

She looked up to where Zayn was looking at her, eyes soft and fond as she nodded at her. “Okay.”

“So can you go?”

They both looked sideways where the other three girls were looking expectantly at them. The girls ignored the start of their instructions as they raised the eyebrows at Zayn and Liam.

“Go where?” asked Liam.

“Didn’t you hear anything we said?” asked Louis, narrowing her eyes.

“No?”

Niall nudged Louis, smiling at her. Louis rolled her eyes and smiled a little. “We’re going downtown for pizza today after we finish with our detentions. You both can come, right?”

“Both?” asked Zayn, looking up from her bag as she took out a pair of earphones.

Harry reached over the table to hold Zayn’s hand, practically throwing herself on top of the table as she did so. Louis’ hand moved to Harry’s side, successfully tickling her. Harry screamed and let go of Zayn’s hand, pushing herself off the table before looking to where the teacher was glaring at them.

“Please, don’t tickle me again. I-” She swatted away Louis’ hands, going up to push her away entirely before pulling her chair closer to Liam. “Liam will protect me, won’t you?”

“Sure,” she said, wrapping an arm around her to prove her point.

“Can you two behave just for a second? Jesus. Anyway,” said Niall, turning to smile at Zayn. “Yes, you too. It’s either the five of us go or no one does. I can fit everyone in my car and you can leave your stuff there. Pizza and walk around to wherever the night leads us. Celebrate that we’re out of detention and that we’ve made good friends in the process.”

“Not a farewell, because we’re still going to see each other pretty much every day. Just a…” Harry shrugged. “Just a hangout between friends. So say yes, both of you.”

Harry looked at her, pouting a little as she leaned against her and, okay, there was no way Liam could say no to her.

“Sure, then,” she said, shrugging a little to make Harry jump a little against her arm.

“Alright,” said Zayn, smiling a little before looking up to the distance and opening up her sketchbook. “Also, can we please start doing our sketches? It might’ve been a nice way to become friends with you four, but I’d rather not have detention for the rest of the semester, thank you very much.”

“Same,” muttered Liam, opening up her sketchpad to a blank page.

“You know,” said Louis, leaning forward against the table and smiling. “For all your frowning and being all dark and serious for a whole month, I thought you would be a little more badass. Not a softie.”

Zayn shrugged, focusing the picture of the dog they were supposed to recreate. “I promised my parents that I’d try my best not to get detention in this school, at the very least.”

“Ah, been there, done that,” smiled Louis. “But same here, honestly, so maybe we should actually try and be silent for once? Since she’s already glaring at us and all.”

The five of them nodded, turning to their sketchbooks with only minimal giggles, which might be a success considering their circumstances.

Zayn nudged her leg below the table, a hand offering an earbud to her.

When she looked up, Zayn was focused on the sketch in front of her, a million times better than Liam’s. She took the earbud, focusing on her own sketch, trying to ignore the way she could feel her cheeks reddening.

This was really not the time for this. She took a deep breath and willed herself to draw the best dog the world had ever seen.

~~~

Liam raised her hands as she went out the detention hall, turning around to smile at Louis. She took one of her hands, putting it up for her to high-five Louis.

“That’s it. We’re done,” said Liam, lengthening her words in a booming presenter's voice. Louis smiled at her, rolling her eyes just a little as she put her hands on the pockets of her hoodie. “Tomlinson, you’ve just finished five straight days of detention. How do you feel about this victory?”

“Frankly, I’m a little bit hungry,” she shrugged. She suddenly clapped her hands, raising them as she jumped a little. “But do you know where we’re going to celebrate, though?”

“No, please tell us, Tomlinson.”

“We both know this is the wrong sport but, fuck it, because we’re going to Disneyworld!”

Liam faked a cheer, hugging a laughing Louis. “Just giving you a heads up of what you’re going to be dealing with when I get into the footie team and we’re winning every game.”

“You’re trying out for the team again?! Like, for real?!”

“Yes, I decided it last night and I’m not backing down from it, so I’m also trying my hardest not to freak out about it as much as I am.”

Liam couldn’t help but smile as Louis did the same, her eyes scrunching up and laughter bouncing off around the hallway.

“You’re not allowed to freak out because you’re going to be great at it, I assure you. And anyone who dares say the opposite will have to go through me and my foot up their ass, alright?” she said, pointing at her and trying to be as serious as possible in the current situation. “Even if you’re probably out of shape.”

“I’m not!”

“I’m just saying, you probably are.”

“I run ten miles a week!”

“I run fifteen.”

“Yeah, well, I also do pilates at the park on Saturdays!”

Louis laughed out, covering her face with a hand. She sighed out, calming a little before starting to do jumping jacks in the middle of the hallway.

“If you’re really as fit as you say you are, you won’t have any problem joining me for a hundred jacks, then.”

Liam rolled her eyes, mirroring her actions even Niall and Harry finally walked out of the classroom.

“Zayn fell asleep again after you two woke her up,” said Harry, untying the many braids she’d done in her hair.

“Why’re you two doing jumping jacks?” asked Niall, looking up from her phone.

“Liam says she’s fit enough for my team.”

“I’m proving I am.”

Harry placed her backpack on the floor, tying her hair quickly before starting to jump up and down while flailing her arms. Liam gathered she was trying to do jumping jacks, but her laughter and poor coordination didn’t help her at all.

“Niall, join us,” she said.

“I’m good, thanks,” said Niall, her attention on her phone.

“Be a supportive friend.”

“I’ll be supportive friend without exercising.”

“Be a supportive friend, I said!”

Niall sighed, pocketing her phone before starting to jump beside them. She swore under her breath, glaring at a smiling Harry.

They heard the door being locked beside them, the unknown teacher pocketing the keys before walking away without another word. Zayn stood beside the door, arms wrapped around herself as she stared at them with her narrow, sleepy eyes.

“What are you even doing?” she mumbled, a hand going up to scratch her eyes.

“Jumping jacks,” said Liam.

“Yes, because that explains so much, thank you,” she said, raising her hands in a stretch.

Harry stopped jumping, keeping her hands above her head as she breathed heavily. “Right, I forgot that I’m asthmatic so I can’t really jump that much, but keep on jumping to prove your point.”

Louis stopped her jumping, putting her hands on her hips as she stared at Harry. “You should maybe remember that for the next time you try to exercise? I feel like being able to breathe is kind of important, you know.”

Niall stopped jumping to place a hand around Harry, who insisted that she “was fine, okay? Stop mollycoddling me.” Liam followed suit, walking up to Zayn who was still looking at them with a confused expression.

“I think it’s astounding that you’re the least weird of the bunch and yet you grew up in the same atmosphere as them,” said Zayn.

“Thanks, I guess? Not sure what that even means,” said Liam, shrugging a little.

“Honestly? Me neither,” she said, yawning a little. “It’s too early for this.”

“It’s four in the afternoon.”

“It’s always too early for everything.”

“Aw, our little Zayn is sleepy.” She decided to ignore the screaming nerves inside her own body as her hands slid around Zayn’s and pulled her into a hug.

“M’always sleepy,” she mumbled against her shoulder. One of Zayn’s hands finally moved from where it’d been awkwardly hanging to rest over Liam’s back. She took a deep breath, but then Niall’s laugh rang out behind them and- okay.

“We’ll just have to put some sugar in you so you’ll stay awake,” she said, moving away from her hug and hoping to the stars above them that her voice sounded excited.

It wouldn’t be very good if it sounded panicked, even to her own ears.

Zayn smiled, rolling her eyes. “Nah, as long as we’re doing something, I won’t fall asleep on you guys. Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh, so let’s go then!”

Liam cheered, raising her hands again. They smiled, Zayn walking beside her as the others followed behind the two of them.

Liam still smiled later in the night, leaning back on her chair as the other girls talked around the two empty pizza trays on their table.

“I thought it would be a good idea!” shrugged Harry, raising her hands a little in a sign of protest.

“It was a horrible idea! I told you hundreds of times but you’re stubborn and you didn’t listen!” said Niall, raising her hands as she turned around to look at her better.

Harry rolled her eyes. “Well, maybe you should’ve done something else to try and stop me from making the air ventilation system into huge bubble-making machine!”

Zayn laughed, covering her face with her hands as she leaned against the table.

Niall shrugged, smiling at Harry. Harry smiled tightly at her before focusing on her attempt at an origami out of the straws’ paper wrappers. “Nah, it was fun to see all the teachers freaking out about it. And it was completely harmless.”

“Agreed,” said Louis, raising a hand.

“Okay, so, I repeat,” said Zayn, leaning just slightly towards Liam as she pulled her feet under her. “Weird school and weird people, but at least the pranks are harmless and funny? Doesn’t quite make up for it, but sure let’s go with that as a good thing.”

“Well, there’s a reason you fit just right in, don’t you?”

Zayn stuck her tongue out, giving the middle finger to a cackling Louis and Niall. She sighed, crossing her arms a little.

“I mean, I could stay in this one,” she said, shrugging a little.

Liam smiled. “Ah, there we go. She likes it here with us.”

Zayn rolled her eyes, huffing out a little. “I didn’t say that.”

“We heard it loud and clear, don’t worry,” smiled Harry.

"Stay with us. Stay with us. Stay with us!"

"Okay, but like I said," said Zayn, placing her hands above Niall's. "I'm tired of leaving schools and I'm glad that I haven't heard any shit about me while I've been here. People have probably talked, but I haven't heard it directly, so I’ll take that as a good sign. And, okay, I do like it a little here-"

"Yes!"

"Even if the people are weird and four of them got me stuck in detention for a whole week even if I was trying my hardest to avoid it by not getting late. Because, seriously, why is room 111 beside the 114? Where are the other numbers in between? Why do people expect me to figure it out in a month? It's confusing!"

"She said she liked us," said Liam, looking around the table with a smile on her face. "Was it me, or did you all heard her saying that too?"

"I said other things too!"

"I don't know, that's the only thing I heard, Zayn," said Louis, shrugging a little.

Niall placed her hands on the middle of the table “Girls, not to break this amazing moment where Zayn said she loves us all, individually and collectively-”

“I did not!”

“The music store’s closing in an hour so I think we should hurry if we want to head there.”

Not much later, Liam stayed back with Zayn as the other three walked in front of them, singing some rock song that was playing along in the radio these days. Liam looked at Zayn, who was smiling fondly at them. She nudged her arm, the soft smile now directed towards her.

“You can say that you want to spend time with us, you know. Don’t have to be so surprised when we say we want to,” said Liam, placing her hands on her pockets as they slowed down walking.

Zayn shrugged. “S’just.” She shrugged again, rolling her eyes a little as she looked at the ground. “I’m not exactly used to it, yeah? People wanting to spend that much time with me.”

“Well, screw them.”

Zayn’s smile grew wider. “Look at you. Such language and attitude for such a lovely lady.”

She laughed, covering her face with a hand and hoping it would help the darkness would conceal her blushing. “I’m trying to be more optimistic and, like, assertive? That’s a word, right?” Zayn nodded, her tongue sticking out as she smiled. Liam looked away, taking a breath before looking back at her. “So, yeah, screw them. We like you. We wanna be your friends. We’re the ones who matter. Screw them.”

Zayn shrugged again. “I know. S’just… Weird, I guess. And, between us, I’m not used to looking ahead to staying in a school for long time, and I guess that’s kinda what I’m doing right now? Don’t tell the others, though.”

Liam could feel her smile growing wider as she closed the distance between them, an arm wrapping itself around Zayn’s shoulders. Zayn’s arm pulled her closer by the waist, the two of them walking tangledly. “I can get that. But I- Well, between us, I still kinda hope you’ll stay too, if that helps. Don’t tell the others, though.”

Zayn smiled, glancing at the ground before looking up at her and, God, she was so beautiful. That was a known fact, yes, but the streetlights and the flourescent lights from the store beside her complemented her so well in a way that Liam didn’t know how to describe. She’d never been good at words. If Liam was artistic, this would totally be one of her art projects. But she’d never been good at that either.

She couldn’t help but look at Zayn’s lips. She’d meant to do it for only a few milliseconds, but she couldn’t move her eyes away from them as her thoughts reorganized themselves and fell into place once more.

Liam was more of a do-er. Thought about things, maybe even too much sometimes, and then tried her best to do it; even if her body was somehow both cold and burning at the same time, even if her ribs were tightening and tightening around her lungs and she felt like she could barely breathe. And, in theory, she knew she could to this. She knew she could ignore everything else, except-

“Yo, losers, we need to hurry!”

Louis’ voice interrupted her thoughts, loosening her ribs and slowly allowing her to regain control of her breathing and body. She looked to the girls in front of her, where Louis was turning to look at them. Liam could feel Louis’ stare between the two of them, how their arms loosened their grips and their feet moved away from each other.

Louis made a face, turning back and returning her attention to Niall and Harry beside her. Liam laughed, at a loss for what else to do, as Zayn sighed.

“C’mon,” said Zayn, stepping in front of her and turning so she was walking backwards. “I’ve never been to the music store here and I want to see what type selection they have. I’m not going to be held back by you.”

“No, but the street post you’re going to walk into might.”

Zayn’s eyes grew wide, quickly turning around to see that there was absolutely nothing behind her. Liam stopped in her tracks as she wrapped her arms around herself from the strength of her laughter.

Zayn gave her the middle finger before turning to look at her. “Don’t trust you. You’re no longer nice. Going to hang out with the nicer girls.”

“Have you met Louis?” laughed Liam.

“Bye!”

Liam laughed, running off behind Zayn to catch up with her and Niall, Harry, and Louis, the five of them laughing the night away.

~~~

It hadn’t been that hard at the beginning.

They’d been talking during lunch between the two of them, so Liam had asked her if they were still studying at hers after school. It was easy to ignore all the thoughts and daydreams that had been plaguing her since the beginning of the weekend when all the other girls were around them making all sorts of jokes. But Zayn had said yes, and that was how she found herself with Zayn in her room looking through her small comic book collection.

Which was cool. She was completely cool about this. Chill. That was another word that could describe her right now. Zayn looked up with that smile of hers that seemed to destroy her a little bit each time it was directed at her.

Liam was definitely a hundred percent chill about everything in her entire life.

She tried to focus on her drawing in front of her.

“Didn’t know you were into superheroes so much,” said Zayn, placing back the comic books back into their box and returning them where she’d found them below her desk. “Guess I should’ve known because of your Batman keychain, but many people just do that because it looks cool. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but you know.”

“Yeah,” she said, placing her sketch on the floor.

She should focus on her art project. She knew it from the moment they started walking to her house. But it was as if Zayn was a kaleidoscope hypnotizing her, catching her attention and causing Liam to be unable to look away from her colors and her face and her smile.

She knew she should stop before she made a fool out of herself. But there she was, all riled up because Zayn was being her amazing self and she didn’t know what to do about it. She took a deep breath, willing herself to relax and stop thinking so much. She could act normal about everything. She could definitely do that.

Zayn sat down on the floor, pushing her math notebook away with a foot as she did so. She propped an arm against the bed, smiling at Liam.

“Just so you know, I’m going to steal some of those tonight, so don’t be surprised if you can’t find them,” smiled Zayn, her tongue sticking out from between her teeth. “Well, it’s not really stealing if I’m going to return them eventually, right?”

Yeah, she could not be cool about this.

Liam nodded, willing herself to look away in order to loosen the tightness in her chest. She shrugged, “I’ll just have to find a way to stop you then.”

“Oh,” smirked Zayn, smile growing wider. When she looked up, Zayn was looking at her with knowing eyes, eyebrows raised just a little. “What are you going to you about it?”

Liam took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a second. She tried to focus on her breathing, looking down to where her hands laid on her lap. She could feel herself blushing, her body’s betrayal only making her feel worse about this, but the more she thought about it, there was really no good reason why she should feel this way. Because, really, what was the worst thing that could happen?

She was not experienced in the art of falling in love with girls and she had only properly known Zayn for week, so she knew there was a slight possibility that she was reading Zayn incorrectly. But when she looked up to Zayn, she could somehow know that they were both in the same wavelength.

There was no way that she was reading this wrong. This was certainly an invitation and Liam would have to be blind not to notice this, to not have noticed that Zayn had definitely inched closer while she’d been lost in her own mind.

So, screw it.

She ignored her screaming nerves and her jittering heart, pressing her lips against Zayn’s. There was a short moment of relief before feeling the panic across her body at the realization that Zayn stood still. She made to move away, an apology on her lips, but Zayn instantly closed the distance between them, resting a hand in Liam’s thigh as she turned and leaned towards her.

Liam sighed as she opened her lips, closing her eyes as Zayn’s hand moved up her thigh. She didn’t know how, but it was as if Zayn had pulled a switch on her and everything felt so alive, so energized. Her hand went up to Zayn’s hip to pull her closer.

“Wait, no,” muttered Zayn as she slipped away from her touch. Liam opened her eyes and pushed herself away, back to her original distance. Zayn shook her head, looking down at her hands on the floor. “You said you were straight and-”

“I’m not. Well, apparently not,” said Liam, moving towards her. Zayn moved away, shaking her head as she looked at her cautiously.

“I’m not, like… I’m not going to do this so you can figure yourself out. That’s your job, not mine.”

Liam sighed, covering her hands with hers. “I’m not going to lie to you, so I’ll admit that I still do need time to figure myself out more. But I didn’t kiss you because of that. I kissed you because I think you’re, like, super cool and talented and beautiful and I really like you and I want you to kiss me again if that’s okay with you.”

Zayn bit her lower lip, looking at Liam quietly before huffing out a small laugh. “That sounds alright, I think.”

“Just alright?” Liam smirked as Zayn slid closer. Liam placed her hands on Zayn’s hips as she basically sat down on her lap, a fond smile on her soft lips.

“Yeah, it’s just alright,” she shrugged, before kissing her once more. “It’s not as if I always have problems befriending people, especially when they’re cute girls like you. Because you're the cutest. But you were always nice to me even if I wasn’t and then it turns out you’re quite funny too? I was gone from the first time I talked to you properly.”

Liam smiled, pressing her lips to her once more. A small whine escaped her as Zayn quickly moved away, chuckling a little.

“Was this all part of a master plan to get me to your home alone and kiss me?” she asked, placing a small peck on her lips.

“Well, no, but I’m not going to complain?” said Liam. She smiled as Zayn’s hand caressed her cheeks, leaning against it as she looked up at Zayn. “I still really need your help on my art project.”

Zayn laughed out. Liam pouted at her, quickly receiving a kiss in her benefit.

“I’m serious, Zayn,” she said, smiling against her lips. “I can’t even paint a freaking flower!”

Zayn hummed. “We can talk about our homeworks later.”

“Good idea,” she said, before pulling Zayn closer to her body.

She wouldn’t think of all the homework they had to do, of all the things they needed to figure out in their lives. Now, all that she wanted to do was to kiss Zayn for as long as she could, make her smile and laugh as much as she could. There would be even more time for this later, she knew, but that didn’t stop her from kissing her with an urgency that had been laying unrecognized inside of her. She would have time to think about that later.

For now, it was all enough.

 


End file.
